As the EPO's Benny and Willy already have their caricatures, it would be unfair to leave FFPE EPO, which signed an MoU with them [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], unloved. "In case you want to use it," someone told us, here is the latest cartoon/caricature.
Munich examiner
As examiner in the EPO Munich since over 10 years I have barely heard of FFPE. Never have I received a document, publication, communication, invitation from this union. So when they were being reported upon in the press, I rushed to their website to see who they were and what they were up to. Maybe I would consider joining a second union too, why not, the more opposition the better. Imagine my surprise when I found out the website was frozen at 2008. What have they been doing all this time? What do they stand for? What do they stand against? How can a group of people claim to be a union, when staff do not know what they are up to? Then I was told by some older colleagues that FFPE was created in The Hague for Dutch colleagues. Fair enough, then it's not for me I conclude.
Again, not the end of the story, when on this blog the Chairman of FFPE insists that they have more nationalities among their members and are open for membership at all places of employment. They have never informed me of that. Interesting they should use a public platform to broadcast this important information.
This seems a very unusual way of representing staff's interests. How can they know what my interests are if they never sought contact with me? Not once since 2002, when I joined the office. On the other hand I was very quickly informed by Suepo on how to join Suepo, what their views were and how to find their publications. Also, which union official to ask for help in different cases. I had all the information to make a choice.
Very, very unusual "union" this FFPE.
Did anyone notice Art 12 of the MoU : "The parties have to agree on the subject matters that will be subject to negotiations" then it is easy for the President to discard an important topic by saying that the management does not agree to discuss it. Furthermore, a time limit for negociating will be fixed at the beginning; 1 month with a single meeting for example may be called negociations. No good faith from the EPO clearly in this MoU.