From Syntec Informatique to Syntec Numérique

What is a trade union?

A trade union groups and federates its members within an associative framework, such as the 1901 or 1884 law, in order to “defend their material and moral interests.

Syntec Informatique’s members are legal entities, i.e. companies represented by their directors. It is therefore an employers’ association involved in the joint operation of the Syntec professional branch.

Governance is governed by the company’s bylaws and internal regulations. An annual general meeting is held to approve the budget, membership fees and the previous year’s accounts, and to elect the Board of Directors, which has sovereignty over virtually all other decisions.

The Chairman is elected by and from the Board of Directors for a 3-year term, renewable once.

Finally, a Managing Director is responsible for implementing the strategy and decisions adopted by the Board, and for managing the syndicate’s human and financial resources.

The associative nature of our business, with its particular governance structure, leads to a specific relationship with time that differs from that practiced in the corporate world.

Union time is slower, longer and generates impatience, which is not easily compatible with emergency situations.

Can a trade union be managed like a company?

A trade union has “corporate” issues in the broadest sense:

Commercial issues:

Members must be considered as customers, because their satisfaction is the key to renewing their membership, which is the main source of income for the unsubsidized union.

Competing associations can also target union members to solicit membership and raise their profile.

Managerial challenges:

Permanent staff are salaried employees, and as such must be managed rigorously in compliance with the law and the sector’s collective bargaining agreement.

A trade union has specific challenges:

The notion of a collective requires a point of consensus for every decision, to unite members around common themes or issues. Like a condominium association, members must agree on priorities, timetables and the hierarchy of objectives, with no hierarchical distinction between them. In the event of failure, nothing will happen, but unlike a company, if membership is sufficient to finance it, the syndicate can continue to exist. Motionless.

Numerous volunteers or contributors mobilized by members take part in bodies, commissions and committees. We need to keep them mobilized, and make sure they are recognized and valued, while maintaining a rigorous, operational operation to ensure the successful completion and communication of work on each chosen topic.

Last but not least, a trade union has a history, a culture and sometimes even values, which must be clearly identified and taken into account by the general delegate and his team.

A trade union must therefore be managed like a business… and at the same time like an association of volunteers united around a common project.

Syntec Informatique’s situation at the end of 2008?

Syntec Informatique in 2008 is a founding member of the Syntec federation, which co-manages the collective bargaining agreement of the same name. The 600 member companies, mainly IT services companies, have seen their business grow year on year. There was no justification for aggressive communication in defense of members, or for expanding the services offered.

In 2007, however, the union had invested heavily in federating software publishers, to the point of having consumed a large part of its financial reserves. At the end of 2008, the budget was around 2.5 million euros for a team of some fifteen people, each dedicated to their own missions and activities. The crisis linked to the collapse of the banking sector, then that of industry, came as a real shock.

An urgent transformation!

Syntec Informatique therefore needed to be urgently transformed to publicize the essential role played by its members in the economy, and to raise the profile of their professions in order to attract new talent in terms of both quantity and quality. Finally, given the government’s determination to reform France, Syntec Informatique needed to make its voice heard more loudly and more consistently over the long term on a wide range of issues: education, healthcare, industrial transformation, public administration…..

Without a transformation perceived by its members and ecosystem, Syntec Informatique was threatened with eventual extinction.

Laurent Baudart,

General Delegate Syntec Numérique