Munich's "big story" is becoming not its migration to GNU/Linux but the EPO débâcle

Summary: Staff of the European Patent Office is going to protest again, possibly before going on general strike

THE EPO's management wants gullible people to believe that union-busting patterns are merely a coincidence and this offensive position (offensive to people's intelligence) will soon have a protest that coincides (not in the coincidence sense) with the quarterly meeting of the Administrative Council.

As SUEPO's public site has just put it:

Actions continue at the European Patent Office: next demonstration on 16 March

SUEPO organises on Wednesday 16 March 2016 a demonstration in Munich in front of the EPO Isar building (Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1) starting at 12.30h.
The purpose of the demonstration is to appeal to the Administrative Council. Staff demands:

• A return to Rule of Law
• Freedom of association and freedom of speech
• Good faith negotiation of reforms
  and:
• Hands off our staff representation!

Hopefully close to 2,000 people (if not a lot more) can attend, leaving an effectively empty Office rather than an excessively laborious Office. Close to 4,000 people already voted for a strike this month.

The meeting of the Administrative Council is going to be unusually arduous for Benoît Battistelli (several of our sources suggest so), who is probably going to be replaced soon; it's just not too clear yet who is going to replace him and there's no election (the aristocracy typically decides behind closed doors, for the "greater good" or for their interests as well as their affluent friends'). ⬆