elf resistance

Wednesday, June 30 (80th day on strike)
 
  • Today's cartoon

  • Today's actions:
  • Running for results
    A relay race that began on June 10, 7 a.m., is organized every day (8 a.m. till 6 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).


  • In Paris:
    The IS rooms are still occupied. The strikers have cut off all communications with three subsidiaries because the Site Manager did not accept to relax the sitting-in conditions of the week-ends.

  • News from Port-Harcourt :
    FREEDOM AND VICTORY AT LAST FOR ALL ELF BROTHERS IN FRANCE AND BEYOND ", claims The Monitor, official newsletter of NUPENG, ELF branch, our Nigerian colleagues. The journal first reports that " the group President/Chairman Mr Philippe Jaffre had to bow shamefully " during the annual assembly of shareholders. The paper goes on with a recall of the court ruling about the occupation of the Alpha building. " The steadfastness and dedication of our brothers and sisters in France secure our freedom for us all and for EPNL in particular " (....) " Report have it that even the Mayor of Pau was in full support of this struggle which lasted almost two months. Victory for all oppressed workers of elf group (white and black) " concludes the text.

    Our colleagues put then their words in practice when they retained in Port-Harcourt for a few hours Jaffre, Vermeulen, Gavalda and Viaud, who came by private plane for a hard day of cocktails and reception last week

  • How to use political cant!!!
    See our
    analysis of the new "pieces of information" given by the Management on the elf-ep-performance site.

  • The Unions write:
    to the Prime Minister
    Lionel Jospin,
    to the employee-shareholder protection
    institutions.

  • Editorial comments
    A public letter to the Unions and a first answer to that letter were circulated within the C.S.T.J.F. on June 25. The former had also been published in the "Eclair des Pyrénées" daily paper and on the elf-ep-performance site. The Unions have chosen no to answer that letter. They have nevertheless decided to publish it, together with the answer, in "Editorial Comments" pages. Of course, it is understood that the comments made on these pages are under the sole responsibility of their authors.

    Now, there is too much talk of that rag called "L’Eclair des Pyrénées" that does nothing else than circulate Elf Management’s propaganda (it is practically the only daily named in the clone). You should know that the June 25 issue, containing anonymous letters (among which the public letter already mentioned), was distributed for free on the next day to all the families living in Lescar. Why Lescar? I ask you. Well, Lescar is the town that houses the largest population of Elf employees!
    Who pays whom, and how?

    The public letter addressed to the Unions
    An answer to the public letter addressed to the Unions
    One more answer!
    A letter to certain nonstrikers

  • A reader writes:
    (Of course, the comments made in this letter are under the sole responsibility of their author)


Read on the elf2000 site (Management’s site), under Y2K heading:
"Elf is doing what's got to be done. Incidents will inevitably occur, because computing is not an exact science and never will be 100 percent reliable. But there certainly won't be any disaster."
To my mind, considering the present situation, they are wrong!

  • Information for supervisory executives (and even not quite supervisory)
    (article for local consultation)

  • Aube: the history of our Enterprise on a stage. Miners put pen to paper
    The "Arthur Mineur" Association ("Arthur" like Arthur Rimbaud and "Mineur" like miner) is pleased to advertise the show entitled "Aube en sol mineur" that will be produced on July 11, 9 p.m., at the "Saint Louis" theater of Pau.
    The performance relates in an inventive style, the history of Elf in our country (and in others...) as well as the conflict that has been taking place for nearly three months now.


  • From the press :

    • La République des Pyrénées: (Official site)
      Elf EP - Before the negotiations begin - The Prime Minister informed

    • La Croix (June 28, 1999)
      About the creation of shareholder value
      No economy grounded on a financial logic that endlessly tries to increase short-term profits can work on the long term.
      Here are a few passages quoted from the article:

      "It is an obvious dilemma: if the share of riches that goes to the capital increases more rapidly than the overall amount of riches, the share devolved to work in the national income will decrease until the working population is so discouraged as to slow down productivity or until the demands of labour become too urging.
      The conclusion is that one cannot demand, as such is the case today, a shareholder remuneration durably exceeding 15% a year while the forecast national income growth is below 4%."

      "When focusing exclusively on shareholders, the financial economy chooses the wrong target and dangerously reverses the logic of economy. Indeed, value is a subjective matter: a good is only worth the price a purchaser is ready to pay for it. In the end, the value of a firm depends on whether the customers accept to pay or not and not on the feelings and choices of share sellers and buyers. The final objective of an enterprise is to satisfy its customers. Shareholder-value creation is only a result of that strategy.
      The paradox is a bitter one: by granting an exaggerated importance to financial markets, one turns away from market economy."

      La Croix (June 28, 1999)
      Europeans dream of a civic enterprise.
      The public opinion expects from enterprises more involvement in the social fabric.
      According to a survey covering 4000 people in France, Germany, Italy and in the United Kingdom, nine Europeans out of ten demand that firms would spare a part of their incomes to help in social problems.
      Some big companies are now aware of that demand, and in 1998, Shell published a social and ethic report.


    • L’Expansion: (official site)
      A record: The champions of value creation (June 24 to July 7 - no. 600)

    • Les Echos (Official site)

      The Jaffré method under test (1) - Mr Clean at Elf (June 28, 1999)
      Five years after privatization, Philippe Jaffré finishes setting the Company in order... He is still criticized for his social policy. His "spring cleaning" operation has even caused a strike of the exploration-production "seigneurs" that has now been lasting for eleven weeks.

      Translator’s note: The above text is translated from the introduction of the article, the word "seigneurs" is quoted literally from the original.

      The Jaffré method under test (2) - Elf: Africa, and what next? (June 29, 1999)
      Elf has discovered huge reservoirs in Angola and will thus achieve a strong growth during the coming years, but what next? The Group has not yet found its "third pole" to take over from Africa and the North Sea. Today, concrete hopes turn towards the Middle-East, Romania, Brazil, or even Azerbaijan. As far as refining-marketing is concerned, Elf is still on a borderline and, in the chemical industry, bets on market gaps.

      The Jaffré method under test (3) - Elf: union or no union? (June 30, 1999)
      During the last year, the drop of oil prices has resulted in a new wave of merges in the oil industry. Can Elf, the eighth group worldwide, continue solo? Its management has now decided, after several years of a "dry regime", to make some significant acquisitions, but is not yet ready to "enter into a marriage" even of convenience. TOTAL, though, seriously envisages a merge....


    • Libération: (official site)
      Attac’s tactics imitated (June 26 and 27)

    • Politis: (official site)
      Mondialization: the Elf conflict (June 24 to 30, 1999)
      This week’s site: a
      record about the events

    • L’Ornitho: (official site)
      An interview: Elf-Résistance, no oil but imagination (the article on the site)
      and (the same article for local consultation)

    • 01 Informatique: (official site)
      EDS* tries to recover its past glory
      No striking declaration or original strategy: EDS’ new Chairman and CEO, Dick Brown, on his first meeting the European newsmen, appeared like the man who would bring about reorganization. "We must live differently" he said.
      Thus his programme is: cost reduction (5200 job cuts announced, none in France), reengineering and two-digit growth scheme. Every employee must justify his presence. Traders are all under the control of an international manager. Every contract will be scrutinized to ascertain its profitability and sick branches will be cut.

      *
      Editorial note: EDS is one of the "partners" chosen by Elf’s management to transfer the IS functions.


    • L’Express Economie
      Elf: the Jaffré problem (June 24, 1999)
      The reforms undertaken at Elf were probably necessary, but the boss’ style, considered as too brutal, is hard to put up with.


    • 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


  • other WEB sites :
    THE DAILY PAUNET : At the front page, the struggle on the WEB.
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