Last Week's EPO Strike Was the Biggest (Highest Participation Rate), Hours Ago General Assembly Discussed Next (Growing) Intensity of Strikes
Last week: A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO) | The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
One week from now there is another EPO strike. Last week about "1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration" and now there are photos and tallies. In the words of the union:
SUEPO had called to demonstrate against the “orientations for a new salary adjustment procedure” which plan an intensification of the erosion of EPO salaries, pensions and others benefits without any financial basis. During the demonstration, the speakers addressed the situation of 5-year contracts, the lack of respect from upper management, the importance of strike as a collective bargain instrument, work-to-rule for examiners and formalities officers and how BIT can support the industrial actions.
Ahead of the SUEPO demonstration they gathered to organise this and about 5 hours ago they did the same. Here are some photos and coverage from the demonstration:
INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETSOrtssektion München
Local section Munich Section locale de Munich
Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO)23 March 2026
su26013mp – 0.2.1/0.2.2Demonstration of 18 March 2026 in front of the Isar building
and Strike on 19 March
A big thank you for your support!
Dear SUEPO members
Dear Colleagues,On 18 March 2026, 700 colleagues and pensioners braved the Munich Spring cold to demonstrate in front of the Isar building. 500 additional attendees connected to the live feed put in place for the first time in the history of SUEPO demonstrations. A total of 1.200 attendees. The strike on 19 March was also very well followed with 1.620 participants. Thank you for your support!
SUEPO had called to demonstrate against the “orientations for a new salary adjustment procedure” tabled by Mr Campinos in the March meeting of the Administrative Council. The document plans an intensification of the erosion of EPO salaries, pensions and others benefits without any financial basis. The presence of EPO pensioners in the demonstration was all the more justified that they had also paid contributions during their whole career for a pension to be indexed on increases in costs of living and now find themselves with a plummeting pension.
SUEPO Munich registered the demonstration with the city of Munich for the participants to be authorised to stay on the sidewalk and the pavement. SUEPO Munich benefitted from the help and support of SUEPO The Hague, Berlin and Vienna. The organisers displayed banners of SUEPO and of the Union Syndicale Fédérale, a federation of unions of whom SUEPO is a member, and provided participants with placards.
For this special occasion, our colleague Iñaki attempted the challenge to cycle from The Hague to Munich (~850 km) during 2,5 days with the support of a “follow car”. After leaving The Hague on Monday night and despite an accident of his “follow car” on the last day, Iñaki arrived on Wednesday at 12.40 hrs at the Isar building just in time to share his joy with the crowd.
During the demonstration, SUEPO executive members and staff representatives from all sites greeted the crowd and took the floor to address specific topics. Among them were the situation of 5-year contracts, the lack of respect from upper management, the importance of strike as a collective bargain instrument, work-to-rule for examiners and formalities officers and how BIT can support the industrial actions. The crowd applauded the interventions and the attendees in the live feed posted their supportive reactions in the MS Teams chat.
Shortly before the end of the demonstration, staff representatives participating in the Administrative Council went inside the Isar building to join the afternoon meeting with the delegates. Since they were refused permission to share slides on the screens, they had to improvise and distributed printed handouts on every delegate’s desk to accompany their intervention. The delegates listened carefully, and the staff representatives left them with the question of whether the risks outlined of legal uncertainty, social unrest, reduced productivity, lower income for national offices, and weakened recruitment are worth it when the same outcome of lowering average salaries and pensions will be achieved anyway within 10 years as the impact of the new career system and the new pension scheme will be fully realised, without undermining staff trust.
When closing the demonstration, SUEPO reminded that the most powerful action every one of us can take is to join the organised strikes and to contribute to the work-to- rule action which is having an impressive impact on the drop in number of products/grants and hence the income of the national patent offices of the delegates.
Thank you for your support in the demonstration!
We need your support to support you.
SUEPO Munich
Well done and well attended. Imagine the media finding the
guts integrity to cover this. This strike was even
bigger than
the previous record-breaker. █