Elodie Thatcher is the EPO's new Iron Lady (recall the UK miners' strike)

Mikhail Gorbachev meets Margaret Thatcher. Photo credit: Yuryi Abramochkin / Юрий Абрамочкин, RIA Novosti

Summary: Classic union-crushing methods continue at the Team Battistelli-led EPO, cleverly disguised as a ballot, which misleadingly evokes thoughts of democracy

TECHRIGHTS has been receiving information about every organisation's worst nightmare (to the management at least). There is a strike coming to the Battistelli-led Banana Republic. People are as mad as Hell as they're not going to take this anymore. Why would they? Just look how Battistelli (mis)treats his own senior staff, their spouses, politicians, delegates, lawyers, and even bloggers. Battistelli is a massive embarrassment to the Organisation and even the Chairman of the Administrative Council finally recognises this (as does the media).

People who plan to go on strike are sympathetic towards their real leaders, the staff representatives who look after workers' interests; they are not against the EPO itself (neither are we), they're just against what became of the EPO with the current management that disregards the law and stomps on the EPC. We previously wrote about this imminent strike which Bergot and her buddies at the Team Battistelli-led EPO tried hard to prevent from happening.

Here is what Bergot wrote in the intranet today:

Notification of a strike ballot

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25.02.2016 Electronic voting on 8 March 2016

By means of this notification (DE, FR), I wish to inform you of the data and procedure for the ballot which is to be held following receipt of a call for a strike.

Elodie Bergot PD Human Resources

The following images (we don't have the text yet, but if anyone can provide it, that would be helpful) reveal what's happening at the moment.

Notice who was designated by Battistelli. Yes, it's Nadja Merdaci-Lefèvre, who has just been officially promoted (as per today's announcement]. Amazing coincidences perhaps. From military career to union, strike and protest crackdown?

"People are as mad as Hell as they're not going to take this anymore."The above smells like a trap that helps identify (or create a list of) who's loyal to Battistelli (or still too afraid of Battistelli) and who's not.

Here is another one, which provides background to this action. Pay attention to the numbers above (754 signatures) when reading the following text:

One source asked us: "Have you heard about the strike ballot? BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH."

The very existence of this ballot is means of intimidation and discouragement. Maybe some civil disobedience is needed here, such as a boycott of the ballot. If nobody bothers with it, no collective action such as collective punishment can be taken into account/consideration (like firing all EPO employees). Refusing to participate in a ballot is a lot less severe an action than actually going on strike. Wait for Pinky and the Brain (Bergot and Battistelli) to take advantage of refusal to participate as 'proof' that the staff does not wish to go on strike (the "vocal minority" narrative bolstered yet again). Watch how they blackmail managers to pretend to support Battistelli's regime. The Banana Republic of Pinky and the Brain makes even a Crimean referendum appear reasonably legitimate. Gorbachev et al would probably label "useful idiots" (Leninist term) those who tolerate this 'ballot''. ⬆

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”

--GK Chesterton