Bonum Certa Men Certa

Don't Forget to Vote for EPO Strike This Week (Thursday)

Because voting does make a difference...

Theresa May



Summary: A reminder that there's a vote on a strike at the European Patent Office later this week, giving an opportunity to rebut the "vocal minority" myth which Benoît Battistelli likes to spread

THE management of the EPO is trying to 'hide' the fact that there's an important vote coming. It's imperative that people do participate and reaffirm the message -- at the very least to delegates -- that they are fed up with the management.



"It's imperative that people do participate and reaffirm the message -- at the very least to delegates -- that they are fed up with the management."There is a vote in 2 days (after a request was made) and according to this anonymous comment, "Battistelli is organising elections to his staff committee this week (having changed the rules again to try to improve the chances of some candidates). And two days later he is organising a strike ballot for staff, although he is trying to do it with minimal knowledge by staff, presumably to keep the turnout below his quorate level. Yes, the President is organising his own strike ballot and won't let staff decide how to ballot themselves."

"Some go further and hypothetise that Battistelli will later use this as an opportunity for eternal tyranny..."As The Register pointed out some days ago, Battistelli now plans to more than halve the number of directors, giving yet more power to himself. Someone commented on it by saying that "Battistelli can digg deeper! more ill conceived reforms in sight..."

Some go further and hypothetise that Battistelli will later use this as an opportunity for eternal tyranny (by him or a crony of his) and the job note -- a note which makes Battistelli's departure virtually irreversible -- is supposed to come out (published in the Web site) in less than a fortnight, namely on the 3rd of July.

"In our next post we'll facilitate easier communication with delegates. They need to be warned in advance."It's already expected that the Administrative Council will rebuff and antagonise Battistelli next week. As one person put it a short while ago: "The Office can only hope that these further reforms will be rejected by the Council. It seems that they are fed up with the President and are simply waiting for his end of term, the reasonable thing to do would be to simply halt the reforms till next year. If you look back at the past years, each of the reforms of Battistelli followed the same pattern: the text looked relatively innocuous, but they were a few hooks that gave the President more arbitrary powers. And the results are catastrophic."

In our next post we'll facilitate easier communication with delegates. They need to be warned in advance.

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