4 Days of Strike in a Row (Including Weekend), But Tomorrow is No Independence Day at the EPO
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2017-07-03 19:39:06 UTC
- Modified: 2017-07-03 19:39:06 UTC
The Battistelli-influenced media treated this strike as though it never happened
Summary: With a tyrant at the Office (not the Oval Office but the European Patent Office) this year's Independence Day will feel like anything but, even though the staff made it abundantly clear that it is fed up and unwilling to tolerate it any longer
We are not shocked that the EPO says nothing at all about the strike; but we are very disappointed that the media too plays along with the EPO in that silence. Only two publications, WIPR and Intellectual Property Watch (IP Watch) have covered it, at least in English. SUEPO's Web site still says not a word about it; neither does The Register, which did take the opportunity to mention the strike last year (Benoît Battistelli escaped to London when the last strike took place).
Well, the EPO was still on strike today and not only does the EPO say nothing about it (same as last week); it does
its typical greenwashing with
utterly shallow puff pieces today (
warning:
epo.org link), including the obligatory Battistelli self-promotion:
"Supported by patents, innovation in the renewable energy technologies sector has contributed to dramatic cost reductions and rapid technology deployment," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli.
We then saw
Catherine Saez copy-pasting the press release and publicly asked: "Did
IP Watch really need to help #epo carry #greenwashing puff pieces to distract from today's STRIKE?"
IP Watch retweeted this critical message, but it has not responded.
To
IP Watch's credit, one of their writers does habitually cover EPO scandals and he also covered this latest strike.
Earlier today someone
anonymously asked about Willy Minnoye: "So how many people showed up for Willy's farewell bash ?"
A cartoon about his last day at work was
recently circulated. Was he the only person in the Office that day? Almost?
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Comments
One of those...
2017-07-04 19:22:26
We are lost...
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2017-07-04 19:30:23
One of those...
2017-07-06 19:36:22
And a feeling of "this does not help anyway". The floors were empty on Friday, but I suspect that many took a leave day instead of striking, thus bolstering Mr. Battistelli's narrative.
We are engineers. We do not fight, we expect fairness.
john
2017-07-11 13:23:31
Battistelli lady out his plans publicly the first year he arrived. He said: -"the office is run by suepo, which is horrible" and he proceeded to change that -"there is not enough difference between regular and management career" (also in pay, he explicitly said that there should be a gap of at least 2000€ a month) and that managers should be exclusively hired from external sources -lowering the monthly pay and replacing it with bonus when objectives were met was a necessity to improve "staff loyalty" -there was no need for a DG3 with the UPC litigation court -the pension plan was far too generous.
It seems he has implemented all these stated objectives but the last one.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2017-07-11 13:29:36