- 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
"LEclair des Pyrénées" that
does nothing else than circulate Elf
Managements 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 (Managements
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.
- LExpansion: (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.
Translators 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)
Attacs
tactics imitated (June 26
and 27)
- Politis: (official
site)
Mondialization: the Elf conflict
(June 24 to 30, 1999)
This weeks site: a record about the events
- LOrnitho: (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
Elfs management to transfer the IS
functions.
- LExpress
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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