A meeting in Brussels has been organized by the EMF (European Metalworkers' Federation) with Fernando Vasquez (Adviser to the General Corporate restructuring, European Commission, Directorate-General Director for Social Employment Affairs and Equal Opportunities ) accompanied by two experts.
EMF was represented by 9 people of 4 different nationalities of which Peter Scheerer, Secretary-general of the EMF, only interlocutor recognized by the European Commission.
Writer of this summary is Marc-Antoine Marcantoni, responsible for HP case within the EMF.
Fernando Vasquez read the letter sent by the French Government seizing the European Commission, and indicated that it had met representatives of the direction of HP which gave him few information. HP Management told them that delocalized employment would be around weak qualification! It is of course contrary with the reality of the HP project and we made the demonstration of it.
The European Commission is taking HP case very seriously and held a meeting as of September 30th about restructuring projects in Europe with HP like central subject. The Commission notes that a great part of the delocalizations take place inside the European zone, and thus from the employment removed in France, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom will find themselves in Wroclaw, Bucarest and Bratislava. They were interested and anxious to note that these jobs will go later further to Asia and will not remain in Eastern Europe.
The Commission will play the following roles on HP subject :
- Legal to make sure that the consultations of the EC European are done while following the law strictly. A debate took place on the refusal of access of independent observers, the lack of transmitted information and the confidentiality imposed by HP.
- Instrumental with the installation of specific devices to minimize the social consequences.
- Strategic because HP project is causing a shock wave in the EC on the delocalization of added value employment. Where are the European jobs of tomorrow ? Which strategy and R/D in Europe for the large multinationals like HP ?. These subjects cannot remain taboos any more.
Next Stages:
- European Commission restructuring meeting on September 30th in Brussels
- EMF Meeting about HP with all the countries on October 27th in Brussels
- EMF Meeting with Mr Spidla, head of Social Employment Affairs at the EC, proposed by the European Commission
- EMF Meeting with Fernando Serafini asked by the FEM
- HP case highlighted at the European Trade Union Confederation (Etuc)
More infos on EMF which gathers 65 trade unions in 33 countries of Europe and represents in Europe our social, political and economic interests : http://www.emf-fem.org
One of its subjects of predilection : the unexploited know-how of European workers.
Seen in "La Tribune" of October 3 2005 :
RépondreSupprimerIs HP still socially responsible ?
Dominique Biedermann, general manager of Ethical fund Ethos :
As long term investor, we analyze companies globally.
Today, Hewlett-PAckard must justify these layoffs because
they affect sites which mainly do profits.
Where is the coherence of such a strategy ?
Of course the IT market changes but this is not new :
HP could have invested in new activities instead of
killing so many jobs.
How can one speak of responsible developpement seeing
these conditions ?
(...)
I also think that a law should limit exercising stock
options while work force reduction plans are active
so that high managers keep their credibility by not
taking profit of the raise of the stock.
Come on guys! After New Orleans I ll probably do "The Big one" part 2 included a Mark Hurd interview; How can he makes profits and fire his salaries?
RépondreSupprimerYours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
PARIS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac launched a fierce attack on the European Union on Tuesday, accusing its executive Commission of failing in its duty to defend European interests and jobs.
RépondreSupprimerHe said Brussels had failed to protect European interests properly in world trade talks and its defence of European jobs had been weak, fuelling public hostility towards the once popular European ideal.
"The vocation of Europe and of European institutions is also, and above all, to defend Europe, to defend the economic, financial and social interests of Europe," he said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"Is it normal for the Commission to be disinterested in a problem?" Chirac asked. "This is one of the reasons that explains the current disavowal of Europe ... It is a problem that must be looked at."
French policy on Europe has been in disarray since voters rejected the EU constitution on May 29, a result due in part to anger over domestic reforms but also to anxiety over the loss of jobs to low-income countries outside the 25-nation bloc.
The vote considerably weakened Chirac at home and allowed British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose euro-sceptical country opposes the sort of political integration favoured by Paris, to demand reforms to ensure leaders better listen to voters.
DISPUTE OVER HEWLETT-PACKARD
Chirac's conservative government, under pressure to reduce unemployment from close to 10 percent, has been trying to persuade U.S. computer maker Hewlett-Packard to reconsider its plans to cut 1,240 jobs in France.
It also tried to enlist the EU's help last month but Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was not in the EU's powers to prevent Hewlett-Packard from dismissing workers.
"Is it normal that the Commission, I would say, has been uninterested" in the problem, Chirac asked.
The French government has also argued that EU competition rules means it must privatise the loss-making SNCM ferry company that links mainland France to Corsica. The decision prompted sharp protests, including the hijacking of a passenger ferry.
Chirac critics, including former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, have complained of a policy vacuum on Europe since voters rejected the EU constitution.
"For the first time in 50 years, France has no project for Europe," Giscard, architect of the rejected EU charter, told a congress of the ruling Union for a Popular Majority last month.
Giscard returned to the attack on Tuesday, implicitly criticising Chirac for failing to halt the start of EU entry talks with Turkey, agreed by EU members late on Monday.
Chirac supports Ankara's entry bid and has sought to reduce public hostility by saying talks with the poor Muslim country of 70 million people will take at least 10 years and that French voters will have the last word in a referendum.
But his ruling UMP is overwhelmingly hostile to Turkish entry and its leader, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who hopes to replace Chirac as president in 2007, says Ankara should be offered a "privileged partnership" based on trade instead.
"The French people said four months ago 'We are against Turkey's entry' and here we are, four months later, and it's happening," Giscard told RTL radio.
The start of entry talks was a victory for euro-sceptical Britain and its goal of reducing the EU to a giant free-market, he said. Turkish entry could kill off the dream of close political integration held by the EU's founding fathers."
You can find some HP's job in Europe :
RépondreSupprimerhttp://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26687