• In Pau: The IS center is still occupied and the network out of operation, thus studies are at a halt and communications between departments and with the subsidiaries are paralyzed.
  
  Result of the poll: extension of the strike voted with only two abstentions.
  
  
• Outstanding points of Unions-Management meetings
  On Saturday, June 19, the IS function was presented by Jacques Duquesne; following are some comments
  
  "Main assessments and diagnoses:
  - Responsibilities are diluted and activities are scattered.
  - The IS is an entity which is difficult to steer. Due to the lack of performance objectives, only technological elements can be audited."
  O.K. but where does the blame lie if not with the IS management?
  
  "Solutions: create a steering committee."
  But then what was the management doing so far?

  "Solutions: partnerships and long-lasting agreements."
  Would they be as committing as F. Isoard’s 1995 agreement that was recently repudiated by the Management?

  "Solutions: partnerships with major partners."
  Like Thominfor, the "partner" chosen by the Management in their previous outsourcing project and a bankrupt less than two years later?

  
  

Running for results
A relay race that began on June 10, 7 a.m., is organized every day (7 a.m. till 7 p.m.) around the C.S.T.J.F. site. It will continue until the end of the negotiations.
Everyone is welcome to participate ... on foot, on roller skates, by bike, etc. (no motor vehicles accepted).

• A flash from "AFP" repeated in "Boursorama"
  
• An employee’s opinion
  
  

• La République des Pyrénées: (Official site)
  Elf EP: The Unions at the starting gate
  
  
• Sud-Ouest: (Official site)
  
  
• La Tribune (June 21, 1999) - Oil Industry: Norway slams Saga's door in front of Elf Aquitaine
  
  
• Le Monde : (Official site)
  Elf loses the battle for the control of Saga Petroleum (June 21, 1999)
  In this paper we can read: Elf, "a French industrial group trapped in a wrong handled social conflict."
  
  
• Les Echos (Official site)
  SAGA’s shareholders have chosen Norsk Hydro’s proposition rather than Elf Aquitaine’s: The public Norsk Hydro announces that it has obtained already 70 % of the shares of the private SAGA. Besides it will be attributed the 20 % held by Statoil, which is also a public company. Elf Aquitaine’s offer was below Norsk Hydro’s but would have been paid in cash.
  
  
• La Dépêche du Midi : (Official site)
  Staff cuts at Elf: Permanent reporting about our conflict.
  
  
• Alternatives Economiques / No. 171 - June 1999
  Pure capitalism
  Under the influence of instutitional investors, companies take up new ways to measure their operations profitability.
  
  
• CFDT Magazine (June 1999)
  Dior: "dolce vita" for the shareholders.
  
  
• Investir (June 12, 1999) publishes an investigation, analyzed by B. Butori, performed among 350 French companies and showing, just like similar American studies, that industrial development creates more value than cost reduction.
  
  
• Liaisons sociales (June 1999)
  Social conflict at Elf, optimism at TOTAL
  From a social point of view, everything has been going wrong at Elf since a reengineering programme concerning 1300 jobs in France was announced. In the meanwhile TOTAL is about to cut 300 jobs with no social reactions. The former pays for a policy of economic recovery, the latter is rewarded for a development strategy.
  
  
• Capital (June 1999) - International Files
  Finance: Pension funds , masters of the capitalism
  These funds, that invest the money of intending pensioners into stocks, dictate their rules to the world. Their obsession is to make as much money as possible.
  "When Philippe Jaffré, the President of Elf Aquitaine, shuts the Pau technical center in order to reduce costs, he only tries to please those who bought Elf shares."
  
  
• Challenges: (official site)
  The strike shakes Philippe Jaffré: Elf verges mutiny (June 1999)
  The personnel is angry against his methods, the shareholders do not trust his strategy: Philippe Jaffré, the President of Elf, is a very lonesome man. Besides, the scandals in which the company is involved and the recent purchase of Petrofina by TOTAL are not much help.
  How Philippe Jaffré lost the confidence of his employees