Perrier Flat

Holdup of the Week

Paris:– Monday, 4. October 2004:– Nestle Waters owns Perrier, located in Vergèze. Nestle is not happy with the productivity at Perrier, so the management is wrestling with its unions. The majority union is the CGT, and it was in opposition to the management's plan and the other unions' agreement with it.

So Minister of Finance Nicolas Sarkozy had a chat with Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT, and Bernard talked to the CGT at Vergèze and they had a vote, again, and dropped their opposition to the company's plan.

Then on Monday somebody decided that the agreement at Vergèze applied to the other units of Nestle Waters, such as Contrex and Quèzac. While Sarkozy was complimenting everybody for being sensible – Bercy is adding euros to the Nestle pot – then Nestle wakes up and says that the CGT's abandonment of opposition isn't enough – it must accept a restructuration. Nestle lets it be known that Perrier's sale is still a possibility.

Last Tuesday the employees voted to quit opposition to the original plan. The CGT asked the government to get Nestle back on the rails. The company ended up threatening the employees with layoffs and forced early retirements again.

To Nestle the Perrier brand is just another marketing chip within their cupboard full of brands. It's not as if Nestle created the Perrier brand over decades, lived with its ups and downs, and built it up to worldwide recognition. The same is not the case with the employees, some of whom have been on the job for decades.

The problem in France is that big food conglomos flush with cash have bought all sorts of small brands, and then applied their notions of global scale to them. Right now there are instances of hardball between these giants and their minor holdings – usually to the effect that if the employees don't agree to whatever 'plan' the company has, then they'll sell, shut down, or move the production to eastern Europe – or China.

While something like 80 percent of students have access to the Internet, only about eight percent have a portable computer of their own. Last Tuesday the Minister of Education, François Fillon, announced that everybody could have one for as little as 1€ per day. The Internet was immediately flooded with orders.

Le Parisien says it is an ambitious plan, adding that by 2007 students will be able to take care of educational administrative details online. The government budget for the action is given as 209 million euros over three years.

Student leaders aren't too sure about this 'gift.' Instead of facing the minister of education, they are confronted by the manufacturers' commercial agents. Even at 1€ per day, 100,000 students can't do it because they are below the poverty level. A major student federation salutes the idea while complaining that the government isn't about to make any contribution towards the deposits that will be required.

Thirty models of portable computers have been proposed by the manufacturers. Some are available on the open market at hypermarchés for less. The Fnac chain opted out, but is offering its own version of the deal for 15 days.

Government spokesmen say that the offer isn't supposed to be 'cheapest on the market,' but the best value. The offered computers are not top of the line, but do have the necessary software.

It's up to the students to arrange their Internet access themselves. By next year the universities are supposed to be able to offer Internet access to all for free. Some universities, without naming any in Paris, already offer access.

It is possible to buy a portable for as little as 929€ cash. But what's there for most is a loan, of 1000 to 3000 euros, for a minimum of 30€ per month over three years. All a student has to do is one night of babysitting and the month's payment is taken care of. For the impoverished students some universities will lend them a computer, or guarantee the loan.

This reminds me of a couple of past 'computers for everybody' promotions by the government. If they had been carried out everybody would be seeking replacement machines by now, instead of new ones.

The program has been in peration for two years at universities in the Rhône–Alps region. Two manufacturers agreed to list–price reductions of 15 to 40 percent off, and 3500 students took it up. At Grenoble they have free Internet access, and the administration there is thinking of lending computers to those who can't afford them.