Lean-SWIFT

We have been reported that the press release of CNE-LBC has frightened a substantial number of people, HR told us that some people called them to ask if their wife/husband or son/daughter would still have a job tomorrow.

Reasons to be frightened:

Indeed, we are convinced that there are reasons to be frightened. We have all been informed that 20% of people will not be around end next year anymore. It is time for people to stop putting their head in the sand hoping they will not be impacted, one out of 5 employees will. The announcement that about 300 people would loose their job was made by management in January.

Covering up:

Management is trying to cover up the ugly truth by using the McInsey language to put people off guard, this is the whole set up of the game. They say they cannot give an exact figure since they only know an amount: 90 million € of which 60 Million € in manpower costs. Taking the average salary this amounts to about 300 jobs in Belgium, even more if they target lower grades.

Sibos Press, 120.000.000 € savings:

What triggered the Union’s communiqué was the article resulting from the press conference Lazaro held at Sibos. The newspaper in question reported that Lazaro said there would be 120 million € cost savings to be done. As this was a rumour that was circulating since some time already, we believed immediately this was a new outcome of the board meeting in Hong Kong. We decided that it was time to let the outside world what was going on.

Finding alternatives:

Through their actions, or better, the absence thereof, management seems not really interested to find alternatives to dismissals. That made us conclude that our relation with management needed another angle. We agreed that going public would make things move.

Putting things right:

We could have tried talking to Lazaro to give him one more chance to make things move our way, but frankly we saw no reason why he would change his mind, things did not really move since January. We also wanted to make our position public to take away any suspicion of collusion with management. Now we hope management will take us a bit more seriously and will stop believing that we are going to go along without real efforts to reduce lay-offs.

Damage to the company:

Management is accusing unions to damage the company’s reputation. Their decisions and actions are the cause of our reaction, we are not firing people, they are, they are the real cause of the reputation damage if any.

Taking responsibility:

Regarding the content of the press article, the one in the “TIJD” mentions that we threaten with “warning actions” but it also says that we know the SWIFT system cannot be stopped like that. We clearly indicate that we take our responsibility and do not intend to block the worlds financial traffic. People in banks asking if SWIFT will still remain as reliable as before have not read the press accurately.

Open for negotiations:

Also we mention that we hope to get to a satisfactory result through negotiations. As management has stated the same in their press release, we hope to be able to resume negotiations in a better atmosphere than the last one we had on 24 September.

Up to now 52 people have been fired in Belgium since April, people are being laid-off in the rest of the world too, the worst is yet to come, unless we make it stop.

At our first meeting, in January, our CEO informed us that the board wanted us to save 50.000.000€ on our recurring costs (to give the money back to the banks in stead of investing, I guess), later this became 90.000.000 €.

Rumor had the amount of 120.000.000€ circulating for a long time...

The slip of the tongue of our CEO in Hongkong taking about 120 milion € reported by an accredited newspaper, s was cleanly removed from the records.

We hope really that this was really a mistake, as this would put morale, as far as there is still some, certainly far below zero, reducing productivity to 0.

The next workscouncil should provide some clarity, we hope...

The CNE-Setca common Union front is very sad about the decision of our Liberal Collegues not to support our endeavours to make things change to the better for our collegues.

300 Licenciements sur 2 ans chez SWIFT

Dès le printemps dernier, l’entreprise SWIFT ? basée à La Hulpe, en Brabant Wallon, a décidé de procéder à une restructuration de type « Lean » via l’entreprise Mc Kenzie.

Il fut d’abord annoncé que les économies nécessaires étaient de l’ordre de 50.000.000€ et que la voie choisie serait celle des départs naturels, autant que possible. Or, à l’heure actuelle, il s’avère que les économies s’élèvent aujourd’hui à 120.000.000€ et que le volume de l’emploi diminuera de 300 unités en Belgique dans les 2 ans à venir. De plus, manifestement, afin d’éviter de tomber sous la « loi Renault », l’entreprise procèdera à ces licenciements de manière perlée. Cette situation est tout à fait déplorable, à plusieurs niveaux :

• la situation financière de l’entreprise ne nécessité pas une opération de telle ampleur ;

• cette situation engendre une augmentation de stress dans une grande partie du personnel ;

• d’autres pistes que les licenciements ne sont pas étudiées par la direction de façon sérieuse (réduction du temps de travail, départ volontaires,… ) ;

• les bonus plantureux continueront à être versés au personnel de direction

• la direction reste aveugle face aux échecs des off-shorings des années précédentes alors qu’un rapatriement des ces activités permettrait de sauver des emplois ainsi que la qualité du travail ;

• cette situation laisse se développer un sentiment de peur dans le personnel dans l’attente de savoir ce qui lui arrivera dans les deux ans. Peur qui l’amène à une certaine forme d’inertie.

Malgré les conditions de sortie avantageuses négociées par les syndicats, nous sommes persuadés qu’il y a moyen de diminuer le nombre de licenciements et surtout de rassurer le personnel au plus vite sur son sort afin que cesse cette attente malsaine.

Pour la LBC (NL) Pour la CSC-CNE(FR)

Koen DRIES Didier LEBBE

0478/566481 0476/355.220