Team Battistelli is socially engineering the staff unions in order to save face

Summary: The public relations offensive (attack on EPO staff) reaches absurd levels as the actions taken to crush unions are being framed as exactly the opposite of that, even in the media

MANY outsiders still struggle to keep abreast or on top of the EPO scandals because there are many of them happening concurrently and some are at best loosely connected.

Two essential background articles (to this latest article) involve the tiny Dutch union called FFPE-EPO, which is said to be quite close to Bergot (we covered this before). Based on numerous comments we have seen, FFPE-EPO is now being used/exploited -- whether with FFPE-EPO's consent or not -- as a weapon against SUEPO. The management seems to be using FFPE-EPO as a "good boy" or a "model child". The plurality of unions (at least on the surface) facilitates 'divide and rule' tactics. FFPE-EPO is rumoured to have just a few dozen members (they declined to reveal how many), whereas SUEPO, based on the following numbers, has about 100 times as many. To quote this comment from yesterday:

From the activity report SUEPO Munich 2014/2015: Active members (Munich): 1.1.2014: 1643 1.1.2015: 1673 1.1.2016: 1859

The conflict shows who my colleagues trust.... - one of those EPO employees

Based on documents that we shared here before, the EPO's management is now launching an attack on the very sign-up mechanism (like command and control) of SUEPO. It's part of the decapitation strategy; SUEPO's rapid growth is clearly scaring Team Battistelli. Several days ago someone leaked to us the following letter:

13 January 2016 su16002cl –5.1/5.3

To: Ms Elodie Bergot PD Human Resources R. 718 Munich Isar

SUEPO Participation to WG on Union Recognition

Dear Ms Bergot,

We refer to your request dated 8 January 2016 that a SUEPO delegation attend a meeting about the "recognition of unions" on 20 January.

You have already been informed of the reasons why we had to decline former invitations. Please refer to our letters of 9 June 2015 to Mr Kongstad (su15228cl) and of 25 June 2015 to you (su15272cl), both of which have remained unanswered.

The same reasons apply even more now, since the administration – in particular at your behest – has further worsened the situation by suspending three SUEPO officials in Munich, tormenting another one in The Hague, even during his sick leave, and even trying to intimidate an employee of SUEPO The Hague. Despite the apparent wish of the Administrative Council in its December session to deescalate the conflict, the Office has since accelerated the process that will likely lead – if not stopped – to severe disciplinary sanctions against several SUEPO officials.

It is disingenuous to make a pretense of seeking dialogue with SUEPO while simultaneously targeting SUEPO officials in such a way. Accordingly, we will not attend the meeting, and place the responsibility for this entirely on you, acting under delegation of power from the President, whilst the Administrative Council is fully aware of the situation. Should the Office decide to lift the suspensions, remove all threats and stop all intimidations on SUEPO officials in all sites, we would of course be ready to immediately reconsider our position.

Yours sincerely,

Joachim Michels Chair SUEPO Central

Elizabeth Hardon Vice-Chair SUEPO Central Chair SUEPO Munich

Alain Rosé Vice-Chair SUEPO Central Chair SUEPO The Hague

Wolfgang Manntz Vice-Chair SUEPO Central Chair SUEPO Berlin

David Dickinson Vice-Chair SUEPO Central Chair SUEPO Vienna

.cc EPO President .cc AC Chairman (with request to inform all AC delegations) .cc Board 28 members

We hope this explains why those people organise more protests. Why tomorrow? Well, WIPR has just dropped the hint when quoting the PT team: "A spokesperson for the EPO told WIPR that the office’s management intends to resume its “social dialogue” with the union.

"A meeting to discuss union recognition talks is set for Wednesday, January 20. This is the same day that SUEPO is due to hold another demonstration in support of the three members."

Got that? The EPO's marketing bunnies now pretend to have "union recognition talks", less than a week after firing some of the most essential and most charismatic SUEPO representatives. How do Team Battistelli members sleep at night? Calling them liars would be an understatement. They also keep up the claims of "violence" from SUEPO (total fiction based on a deleted comment, but see the WIPR article repeating these claims). At least now we can guess what FTI Consulting is preparing behind the scenes, except propaganda events. Expect more socially-engineered 'unions' to emerge (Battistelli-leaning ones); this will be the subject of a future post of ours. ⬆