Apple Workers in France Stage Strike Over Work Conditions on iPhone 15 Launch Day 

Apple France workers on strike gather in front of the Apple Store near Place de l'Opera during a protest to demand higher pay and better benefits on the day Apple launches its iPhone 15, in Paris, France, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Apple France workers on strike gather in front of the Apple Store near Place de l'Opera during a protest to demand higher pay and better benefits on the day Apple launches its iPhone 15, in Paris, France, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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Apple Workers in France Stage Strike Over Work Conditions on iPhone 15 Launch Day 

Apple France workers on strike gather in front of the Apple Store near Place de l'Opera during a protest to demand higher pay and better benefits on the day Apple launches its iPhone 15, in Paris, France, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Apple France workers on strike gather in front of the Apple Store near Place de l'Opera during a protest to demand higher pay and better benefits on the day Apple launches its iPhone 15, in Paris, France, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)

Workers at Apple stores in France began a nationwide strike over pay and working conditions on Friday in a protest designed to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 15.

It is the latest headache for the tech giant in France after it was forced to stop selling its iPhone 12 model earlier this month for above-threshold radiation. Apple disputes the findings of the French watchdog.

About 30 staff were picketing outside the company's store in Opera in central Paris, one of three in the French capital, a few meters away from a line of about 40 customers waiting in the rain to enter the shop.

"We are still the people who make Apple's wealth, and therefore I think that we deserve a little more honorable treatment than what we are given today," said Anais Durel, a 36-year-old who has worked for Apple for 10 years.

Apple unions including CGT, Unsa, CFDT and Cidre-CFTC, which also plan to strike on Saturday, have asked for a 7% wage increase to compensate for inflation, and an end to a months-long hiring freeze. Management did not want to offer more than a 4.5% hike, union officials said.

"Inflation is still quite nasty. There are a lot of employees who are experiencing difficulties," said Tarek, a CGT union leader who declined to give his last name.

"The goal is not at all to block sales of the iPhone, the goal is really to bring awareness to this situation," he added.

Staff at an Apple store in Barcelona, where about 250 people were queuing to enter the store on Friday morning, were set to join colleagues in France in protesting against working conditions.

About 20 workers will set up an information picket outside the store on Paseo de Gracia in central Barcelona at midday, Pablo Paredes, leader of the CNT Apple union, told Reuters.

Paredes said the workers aim to highlight poor working conditions including contracts which do not compensate them for working at weekends or at night.

CNT is a minority union and only active in one of Barcelona's two stores. The union has not yet managed to secure a meeting with the company to lodge its complaints, Paredes said.

"We have been talking since August to our colleagues on strike in France. In Spain, unlike them, not all the unions have agreed to strike," Paredes said.



Google Offers to Loosen Search Deals in US Antitrust Case Remedy

The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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Google Offers to Loosen Search Deals in US Antitrust Case Remedy

The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
The Google sign is shown on one of the company's office buildings in Irvine, California, US, October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Alphabet's Google proposed on Friday a loosening of its agreements with Apple and others to set Google as the default search engine on new devices, in a bid to address a US ruling that it unlawfully dominates online search.

The proposal is muchu narrower than the government's push to make Google sell its Chrome browser, which Google called a drastic attempt to intervene in the search market.

Google urged US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington to move cautiously in deciding what the company must do to restore competition, after his ruling that the company holds an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising. Courts have cautioned against imposing antitrust remedies that chill innovation, Google said in court papers.

That is especially true "in an environment where remarkable artificial intelligence innovations are rapidly changing how people interact with many online products and services, including search engines," Google said.

While Google plans to appeal that ruling at the end of the case, it says the upcoming "remedies" phase should focus on its distribution agreements with browser developers, mobile device manufacturers, and wireless carriers.

The judge found the agreements give Google a "major, largely unseen advantage over its rivals" and result in most devices in the US coming pre-loaded with Google's search engine.

The agreements are hard to exit, the judge said, especially for Android manufacturers, which must agree to install Google search in order to include Google's Play Store on their devices.

To fix that, Google could make them non-exclusive and, for Android phone manufacturers, unbundle its Play Store from Chrome and search, the company said in its proposal.

Google would allow browser developers that agree to set its search engine as the default to revisit that decision annually under the proposal.

REVENUE SHARING

Unlike the government's proposal, Google's would not end revenue sharing agreements, which pass a portion of ad revenue Google makes from search to the device and software companies that present it as the default search engine.

Independent browser developers including Mozilla, which makes Firefox, have said the funds are crucial to their operations. Apple received an estimated $20 billion from its agreement with Google in 2022 alone.

Kamyl Bazbaz, spokesperson for search engine competitor DuckDuckGo, said the proposal attempts to maintain the status quo.

"Once a court finds a violation of competition laws, the remedy must not only stop the illegal conduct and prevent its recurrence, but restore competition in the affected markets," he said.

Google's proposal sets the stage for a trial Mehta will hold in April, where the US Department of Justice and a coalition of states will seek to show the need for wide-ranging remedies, including making Google sell off Chrome and potentially its Android mobile operating system.

The government plans to call witnesses from OpenAI, AI search startup Perplexity, and Microsoft, according to court papers.

Prosecutors also want Google to stop paying to be the default search engine, and cease investments in search rivals and query-based AI products, and license its search results and technology to rivals.

The proposals aim to spur innovation in online search, where Mehta found Google's overwhelming market share keeps competitors from gathering the search data needed to improve their products, and prevent Google from extending its dominance in search to AI.