Censorship in Alcatel-Lucent

One of the rights one over the years in parts of Europe is the right of workers' representatives to make their views known to the workforce. Before the days of the intranet this usually took the form of notice boards and the distribution of leaflets. In the last few years this has changed. Especially works councils and sometimes unions have won the right to directly address the workforce on the intranet.

Up to a certain extent this practice has been tolerated by management. In times of crisis their attitude can change very rapidly. This is the case at Alcatel-Lucent.

• In France, management threatened to close down the site of the European Works Council for the use of the following logo as part of the preparation for the international demonstration on March 15th.
• In the Netherlands, communications by the works council cannot be put up on the intranet without management's approval.
• In Belgium, management has refused for the last six years to have a "union corner" on the local web server and the usage of the mail server by the union is also not possible.

All these examples show how management are unable to deal with critical voices. All the talk about social and corporate responsibility disappear in a cloud of smoke when the going gets tough. Democracy? Dissent? Yes, but not after you enter the company premises. This is another aspect of the dark side of Alcatel-Lucent.

So what can and should be done? In the above cases, the information has been moved or presented on external web servers on the Internet or sent in the form of mass mails. Be that as it may, this is not enough. Censorship has to be fought. Companies who practice it must be made public, both within the company and outside of it. It has to be made known and the companies forced to allow the same right to communicate and dissent as they have in the society in which they are based. Democracy cannot end at the factory gate.