"Power, To The People" Part II -- Organon/Oss Site Options Still Open

Per Reuters, from a Whitehouse Station e-mailed blast:

. . . .The initial deadline of December 31 has now been extended to mid-February [2011], Merck said in a statement, giving the various parties involved extra time to consider alternatives for two facilities which were previously part of Organon BioSciences in the Netherlands.

Merck agreed in September to postpone the closure of some of its Dutch operations [Ed. Note: read as Oss], averting a court hearing in which Organon employees planned to block the closures. . . .

This is good news for the Organon BioSciences people, to be sure -- but I continue to wonder whether Merck is a little light, on legal savvy, in its European legal function, if (as now seems plain) it was unable to appropriately Gant chart out both the internal managing board approvals, and the Dutch Works Council process, to get this done last fall. It has come so far off track (with the potentially months-long Oss relay protests/job-actions being the best example here) that Whitehouse Station is now trying to sell the entire Dutch BioScience operation, intact if possible, to a European buyer (like Merck KGaA).

Strange, indeed -- but good news (and at Christmas-time, too!) for the people of New Merck in the Netherlands, no doubt.

As ever, we'll keep you posted.