French Apple Store workers strike on iPhone 5 release day

The much-anticipated release of the iPhone 5.

But some Apple employees here in Paris and across France are striking to demand better working conditions.

One of France's main unions, which represents about a quarter of Apple store employees, is behind the strike.

Some of their demands include the installation of water fountains in staff areas, the provision of meal vouchers and paying a thirteenth month salary a common practice in French companies.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) STRIKING EMPLOYEE, THOMAS, SAYING:

"We have really bad condition of work and hard condition of work and we do our best every day, so please just take care of us."

But sales of the new handset were unaffected, as a queue wrapped around the block with customers eager to get their hands on the latest iphone.

Apple, which employs about 1,000 people in its French stores, said earlier this week that it had booked orders for over 2 million iPhone 5 models in the first 24 hours.