World-leading scientists in support of EPO staff and against EPO management

Summary: The CERN Staff Association is disturbed to see that "the management of EPO has been attacking the representatives of the personnel on a regular basis."

THE OTHER day we wrote about EPO staff receiving support from CERN, probably Europe's most highly regarded scientific institution. Even the US public (and the USPTO) probably wish they had something like CERN, but what they have instead is NASA (it remains to be seen what Donald Trump will leave of it other than climate sceptics [sic]). CERN is the best bar none in its domain, the international leader in several areas of physics. The EPO cannot simply dismiss CERN as irrelevant.

Here is a message from CERN, which has reached us not too long before today's protest:

Dear Colleagues, On Tuesday, 29 November 2016, the CERN Staff Association published in Echo (their internal newsletter) an article regarding the very troubling situation of the EPO. Over the past three years, the management of EPO has been attacking the representatives of the personnel on a regular basis. This has resulted in demotions and dismissals of representatives of the personnel. It is essential to inform all of our colleagues in international and European organizations of what is going on at the EPO. You can find the article published in Echo, along with further information on the issue, on the website of SUEPO (Staff Union of the EPO). (https://www.suepo.org) In order to support our colleagues of SUEPO and to show that what is happening at the EPO is widely known, you may, if you wish, send messages of support and take a stance on this issue by contacting SUEPO directly at: hague@suepo.org and/or munich@suepo.org. Best regards. Joel Lahaye CERN Staff Association External relations

It has meanwhile emerged that ILO's staff too supports EPO staff and SUEPO's Web site has just been updated to link to this announcement in English and in French. The text is not the same as in the E-mail we saw, so we reproduce it below:

The ILO Staff Union Committee supports the struggle of the EPO Staff Association to maintain its work under decent conditions and without retaliatory measures. Indeed, for three years, the staff of this organization has been working in a toxic environment where the deterioration of working conditions is well known.

The representation of the staff is constantly repressed in a brutal way (demotion, eviction) which, in fact, prevents any dialogue between the staff and its administration.

We encourage you to read the articles published by our colleagues of the CERN Staff Association (http://cds.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2016/48/Staff%20Association/2235528?ln=en) and the ECB (European Central Bank) (http://ipso.de/page.php?c=3)

The ILO Staff Union Committee has already communicated its support and solidarity to the staff of the EOB.

This mentions the ECB (European Central Bank), whose staff made a statement that we covered yesterday.

The number of voices against Battistelli's regime is growing by the day/week and someone sent us "2 further letters in support of EPO staff, one from ILO Staff Union and another from USF."

What will it take for the Administrative Council to become sober (not drunk on Battistelli's "carrots") and realise that this whole institution is now at risk and by failing to act they actually participate (complicity) in institutional corruption? Toasting over the protection of Battistelli somewhere like Kongstad's slaughterhouse^* (getting drunk inside this echo chamber) won't get their own career very far. ⬆ ______ ^* Many people choose to adopt rodents as pets, chinchillas being some of the most desirable among them, but to Kongstad and his wife chinchillas are just piles of bones with fur on them, bred/harvested purely for profit from Danish elites (and sociopaths abroad).