Average participation of 70% for the national strike day of Apple Retail Italy workers, which takes place alongside the arrival of the new iPhones (18 and 18 Pro, while the awaited ‘Duo’ will arrive on September 23) in Italian stores. This is stated in a note from Fisascat Cisl, which called the strike together with other category trade unions for the entire work shift, with pickets in front of the stores. According to the unions, the protest involved over 1,600 employees from the 17 stores of the American multinational. The demands: adequate staffing, sustainable workloads, and recognition of the staff’s contribution to the group’s results.
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Positive balances but difficult working conditions
In Rome, about one hundred store employees animated the authorized picket at Piazza Capranica, a few steps from the Via del Corso store. At the center of the unions’ attention is the gap between the multinational’s economic performance and the conditions of those working in the stores. Despite growing sales and profits and a global capitalization around 5,000 billion dollars, the unions denounce insufficient staffing, increasingly intense rhythms, and growing productivity pressures. “The strike follows the state of agitation started in June and the mandate expressed by the assemblies on September 7, held simultaneously in the Italian stores.
More attention to staff well-being
The dialogue with the staff highlighted a worsening of working conditions, also related to the introduction of processes and procedures that, according to the trade union representatives, increase productivity demands without adequate attention to people’s well-being. The proposals put forward by the trade unions include a shared hiring plan, the stabilization of a portion of fixed-term staff, and the voluntary increase of part-time employees’ hours. Interventions to be tailored to the needs of individual stores, with certain implementation times,” reads the note.
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“The company has not shown willingness to accept these requests, announcing only an increase in temporary hires and an advance in their start. A response deemed insufficient: the use of temporary staff for periods now close to seven months highlights, for the unions, structural needs that require stable employment solutions.
Too much discretionary margin for the company
Among the reported critical issues are also the increasing mixing of tasks and role descriptions that leave wide discretionary margins to the company.” The increase in the value of meal vouchers to 10 euros, obtained since August, “represents an important result of the dialogue, but does not exhaust the staff’s demands nor solve the organizational problems at the root of the protest.
