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ESF "mafia boss" stands for election

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The Dauphine-Lèchecul newspaper is reporting that Gilles "Don" Chabert, head of the ESF is standing on the Republican ticket at forthcoming regional elections in France. Some have likened "Tonton" Chabert to an old school mafia boss and this move will heighten concerns that the ESF, which the Dauphine refers to as "the flagship of the French mountains" is too close to the seats of power and has undue influence over legislation.


M. Chabert will certainly be putting his considerable weight behind the ESF's ambitions

Indeed "Papi" Chabert makes no secret of his ambitions "I want to defend the mountains and by that I don't mean farming and agriculture. Today there is a new act going through Parliament and I'm going to make sure our point of view is heard".
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Do you think he would be able to pass the Euro Test? Toofy Grin Toofy Grin Toofy Grin Toofy Grin
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@Gaza, he certainly hasn't passed the Fashion Police Test rolling eyes .
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He's still eating well
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Do we get a prize for guessing the resort? Is it ADH, Signal Sector?
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dobby wrote:
Do we get a prize for guessing the resort? Is it ADH, Signal Sector?


You've won first prize.
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he's wearing the same outfit as the ADH marmotte......
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Is he standing for office in order to protect just his ESF members? Or does he have a wider range of interests? I read elsewhere that his views are not too far removed from the Front National. davidof, is that right?

I think I'm correct in saying that M. Chabert is also on the Board of Le Dauphine, so you'd imagine that the editorial staff there have a dilemma when deciding to report on his work...
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Here is a longer article on M.Chabert.

http://www.challenges.fr/economie/20140228.CHA1021/la-main-de-fer-du-patron-des-moniteurs-de-ski-francais.html
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rob@rar wrote:
I read elsewhere that his views are not too far removed from the Front National.


Apparently Les Républicains is a mainstream centre-right party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republicans_%28France%29
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davidof wrote:
Here is a longer article on M.Chabert.

http://www.challenges.fr/economie/20140228.CHA1021/la-main-de-fer-du-patron-des-moniteurs-de-ski-francais.html


Gilles Chabert directs the structure which oversees the school (private) of French skiing. A grip that imposes up in Paris and Brussels.

It is known for its rocky accent of Vercors, his red sweater and his good nature. President of the National Union of ski instructors for twenty years, Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy. But beware, good nature does not mean weakness. Those who believed have learned to their cost. Chabert monitor, if not skiing, has not forgotten the art of planting stick. And this amateur hunting is also a very good gun. "It is true that it is better to have me with you than against you, he said, mid-January, in his office Meylan, near Grenoble, which he converted into Alpine chalet. I'm more of a nice, I forgive a little, but I remember. "

Lobbyist party "Alpine"

Nicknamed "the general of the Red Army," Chabert reign on the mountain. His kingdom exceeds 17. 000 instructors from the French Ski School (ESF) and 250 million euros of activity. Member of the board of Compagnie des Alpes, the People's Bank of the Alps and the Dauphiné Libéré, he served in many forums and mountain associations. In Paris two days a week, it has its inputs to the Ministries of Sports, Tourism, Education. The Assembly and the Senate, there goes when he wants with his access badge. In Brussels, his friend Michel Barnier, European Commissioner furthered his files.

"This is the man most powerful in France over 1 000 meters", says Hervé Gaymard, president of the General Council of Savoy. His "side", as he says, rather leans to the right. But he also knows the track to the left. Dissatisfied with the timing of school holidays in April 2015 - which debuted in midweek - Chabert will is moved with MPs "alpine" cronies. Some pleaded his case with Vincent Peillon and convinced him to give up. On January 21, he received a draft law securing the activity of late career monitors is voted unanimously in the Assembly.

Tough business

Chabert is the perfect knowledge of the mountain combined with a sound common sense. "Just a few years, we wanted to increase the capital of Compagnie des Alpes and our bankers were reluctant to do the operation in July or December, tells the former director Philippe Segretain. Gilles said that if the operation was done in December and there was no snow at that time, it would make trouble. He was right. "Yet common sense when, in 2002, the proposal of the then Minister of Sports, Jean-François Lamour, he agrees that the Union invest in the "Fed" (1.2 million euros a year), so bloodless. "I need a strong France team with medals, he says. It gives me the arguments in Brussels when a Greek or Danish tickles me."

Surrounded by a steering committee of seventeen members, the President delegates to the life of the ESF, the organization of courses, sports tests, contracts with suppliers. Otherwise, the defense of the profession at large, he made ​​his case. Often chatting around a good table - it took 40 kilos since his first term in 1994. But also by putting his foot in it. With his rival, the School Ski International, trials are legion. "Chabert prevents us to grow and makes believe that the ESF is an official school, while it is private", said Philippe Camus, its president. Relations with English instructors have long been in conflict. Believing their education insufficient, Chabert was forbidden to teach in France, obtaining an unlikely exception to the Rome Treaty on the free movement of persons. The case earned him the honor of a course on lobbying at ENA. "Subsequently, the language was taken up with the English by imposing a level recognized today by nine European countries", he said.

The international openness, he has nothing against. This has become a necessity with the crisis. "When we created our club in China in 2011, he sent a dozen instructors to train local instructors, said Henri Giscard d'Estaing, CEO of Club Med. With the hope that the Chinese will then skiing in our resorts rather than in Switzerland or Austria. "Until China saves the French white gold, the former woodcutter other deadlines in mind. His bid for a sixth term in the spring. "In 2010, I collected 95% of votes. This time, I still think it should happen, because a priori there should not be a candidate against me."
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Quote:

Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy

Why, after he's chopped down trees, does he dress in womens' clothing and hang around in bars?
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intermediate wrote:
Quote:

Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy

Why, after he's chopped down trees, does he dress in womens' clothing and hang around in bars?


No he gets chased by a load of Canadian Mounty's (CSIA) who want to dress him in women's clothes. Laughing
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speed098 wrote:
intermediate wrote:
Quote:

Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy

Why, after he's chopped down trees, does he dress in womens' clothing and hang around in bars?


No he gets chased by a load of Canadian Mounty's (CSIA) who want to dress him in women's clothes. Laughing


You bullies should leave him alone...he's a lumberjack and he's OK....
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ALQ wrote:
speed098 wrote:
intermediate wrote:
Quote:

Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy

Why, after he's chopped down trees, does he dress in womens' clothing and hang around in bars?


No he gets chased by a load of Canadian Mounty's (CSIA) who want to dress him in women's clothes. Laughing


You bullies should leave him alone...he's a lumberjack and he's OK....



Sorry you are perfectly right we should not bully him Little Angel


After all his only aim in all this is that after hearing decades of "Bendz Zee Knees" from all those Austrian instructors he has decided the French need one as well.
"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

And he even promises to have all the customers saying it perfectly by the end of the week so they can at least impress all their friends with something snowHead
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intermediate wrote:
Quote:

Gilles Chabert, a professional lumberjack, immediately attracts sympathy

Why, after he's chopped down trees, does he dress in womens' clothing and hang around in bars?

No, after he chops down trees he chops them up.
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@laundryman,
Quote:

No, after he chops down trees he chops them up

He sounds like the right man to sort out the IAAF and FIFA.
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I think the article suggests that whilst initially (rather than "immediately") he seems "sympa" there's a "but.......". Worth noting that his big fight is not necessarily with the handful of English (sic) instructors, but with the ESI, led by another Frenchman.
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... and with other foreign instructors. For the time being, he has BASI in his pocket.
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pam w wrote:
Worth noting that his big fight is not necessarily with the handful of English (sic) instructors, but with the ESI, led by another Frenchman.
I think his big fight is with anyone who is not a member of his trade union.
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ESF seem to have done a good job of convincing people they are a kind of nationalised ski school. Hence the way that people tend to talk about "the French" when they mean "the ESF".

Still, despite this big bully, the furriners have made much better progress in France than in Austria. And how many British-owned ski schools are there in Italy?
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rob@rar wrote:
..I think his big fight is with anyone who is not a member of his trade union.

I believe that's how unions work, generally. He's not running an organization which looks after the consumer.

It would be fun for him to do the Euro Test, to ensure he's actually properly qualified and all.
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philwig wrote:
I believe that's how unions work, generally. He's not running an organization which looks after the consumer.
Indeed, and he's done a very good job for his members. The surprising thing is how often he turns up to represent the French government in national and international discussions about working rights.
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pam w wrote:


Still, despite this big bully, the furriners have made much better progress in France than in Austria. And how many British-owned ski schools are there in Italy?


Not sure about that... I can't think of any specifically British ski schools here (also can't think why you'd need one!), but I do know plenty of Brits, Dutch, Skandis etc working as instructors and guides - either with schools or independently. I'd think there are more in France mainly just 'cos more Brits still tend to go to France than Austria and Italy, possibly 'cos more also go there on summer holidays and traditionally more learn(ed) French in school.

As an aside, do you also get 'Dutch schools' and 'Danish ski schools' (etc) in France, or is it only the Brits who feel they need for 'special' ski schools?
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More than a passing resemblance to Alex Ferguson in some photos, I would say.
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pam w wrote:
Still, despite this big bully, the furriners have made much better progress in France than in Austria. And how many British-owned ski schools are there in Italy?
I don't think as straightforward as simply comparing the number of British ski schools in France v. other EU countries as the yardstick for how much progress has been made in enacting EU legislation for the free movement of professionals. I'd say that the Italians and Austrians (and certainly the Swiss, who have adopted the same laws) have more fully enacted the legislation whereas the French have enacted the bits they like (or were forced to accept). Setting up a ski school in another country is as much a function of market demand (typically a British ski school will get their clients from the visiting British skiers, so you need a critical mass of Brits in a resort to make it a viable proposition). However, there are differences in the requirements for establishing a business in the main alpine countries, and France does seem to be a bit more straightforward that Italy and Austria as far as I understand it.

A quick question: is a ski school that operates all season long in France but is registered as a company in the UK (and therefore I guess pays company taxes in the UK) a British ski school that happens to operate in France, or a French ski school that happens to be owned by Brits...?
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@clarky999, there are a good number of British ski schools in France - and I'd applaud that - it's what the EU is supposed to be all about, though Chabert and his ilk have tried hard to stamp out competition (incidentally, he probably did the Eurotest back in the day......).

I have never met a Danish skier in France and though I have met a number of Dutch skiers, they aren't around in huge numbers IME and, besides, they usually speak other languages well, unlike the Brits. Same goes for the Danes, I'm sure.

There are also Brits working for the ESF of course. I have no idea what standard of French is demanded of them.

I gather that Austrian instructors often speak very good English these days, though it seems from Snowheads threads that some of the British ones working in Austrian ski schools get away with speaking pretty limited German. I've only had experience of two Austrian instructors - both some years ago. One of them spoke exceptional English (he'd worked in Loughborough for a few years...) and the other none. I speak some German and a Dutch nun in the same group translated the trickier bits for me.

The English ski schools in France vary, and I've only used 3 or 4 of them, but they have a different approach from ESF - more technically focussed, which I like. And smaller groups. Far more expensive, of course; the ESF are generally pretty cheap, both for group and private lessons.

The last two ESF instructor I used (for cross-country) spoke practically no English but then, they practically never have any Anglophone customers and I speak enough French to cope. I get a week's French practice thrown in for no extra cash.
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pam w wrote:
@clarky999, there are a good number of British ski schools in France - and I'd applaud that - it's what the EU is supposed to be all about, though Chabert and his ilk have tried hard to stamp out competition (incidentally, he probably did the Eurotest back in the day......).


Probably not as the ET is not really that old a test.
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The truth seems to be that the people who run the mountains, in many resorts throughout the Alps, do their best to keep everybody else out. Not just furriners, but people from the next valley, or the next village down the same valley. wink

"Ils sont pas les gens du coin" What's the Austrian equivalent?
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A Dutch skiing nun you say ?
Nuns not what they used to be i guess.
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pam w wrote:
The truth seems to be that the people who run the mountains, in many resorts throughout the Alps, do their best to keep everybody else out.
Perhaps by (mis)using laws that are designed to ensure the public have access to a wide range of professional services with appropriate safety standards. One of the things I find frustrating in this general debate is the number of people who think the EU/national laws are designed to protect a small group of workers (who may or may not have been born in the mountains) rather than protect the interests of the consumer.
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@pam w,
Quote:

"Ils sont pas les gens du coin" What's the Austrian equivalent?

Something like...sie sind nicht die Einheimischen? Usually spoken with thinly disguised disdain?
'French Boss Accused of Protectionism' seems unlikely to win any shock headline of the year awards.
As for EU/national laws...plus ca change plus ca meme chose. Personally I somewhat grudgingly admire the French for resisting the march of globalism.
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@rob@rar, indeed, I'm not condoning the practice which too often goes along with a whole raft of rather unpleasant attitudes to "outsiders". A Frenchman who used to run a language school in Les Saisies, when we first had our apartment there, used our "French conversation" sessions to discuss this. He was from northern France (so already an outsider) and he had a Malaysian wife and an adopted boy from New Caledonia. Even the teachers in the local (or rather, Hauteluce, so not really "local" in the local sense of the word) had some nasty racist attitudes, it seems and he had American friends who had encountered similar problems and moved away to somewhere more cosmopolitan.

He tried to organise some activities and outings for the children of local restaurant/hotel/ski school people who were working 24/7 in the busy times. His attempts foundered on the impossibility of getting any agreement from the outlying areas as to which kids would be picked up first/delivered home last, by the buses.

I have little doubt that similar attitudes and practices exist elsewhere but it's always "the French" who get castigated for protectionism. Would a mixed race family moving into a little Austrian alpine village to set up a business find life easy? In some parts of the Alps I understand that it's even legally impossible for outsiders to buy a property! Though not in France.
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pam w wrote:
Would a mixed race family moving into a little Austrian alpine village to set up a business find life easy?


A mixed raced family in the Haute-Savoie might just get you murdered by jealous locals.

As for M. Chabert. This is where we see the dangers of PR on a list system. M. Chabert might just get his hands directly on the levers of power simply because one of his muckers put him on the end of an electoral list and he just happens to be on a rebound year from the party in power. No-one voted for him directly but a rising tide floats all turds, as they say.

He may be widely popular with the ESF members, with the average French skier... not so much judging by comments after this news came out. The center party, the MoDems, have refused to join the Republican list for the Rhone-Alpes in part due to some of the old lags they'd have to share a platform with.
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Fear not, fellow snowHeads. Cameron is on a quest to sweep away all European red tape, bureaucracy, protectionism, razor-wire fences and probably funding. Then we'll all become one big happy family. Just don't hold your breath.

@pam w,
Quote:

Would a mixed race family moving into a little Austrian alpine village to set up a business find life easy?

Probably not easy. But I'd rather try my luck there than, say, Savoie or La Corse.

Another thought crossed my mind (short journey) - has anyone encountered a non-British ski instructor working in Scotland? Or are they not so daft as to swap the Alps for that privilege?
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intermediate wrote:
has anyone encountered a non-British ski instructor working in Scotland? Or are they not so daft as to swap the Alps for that privilege?


I met Sylvain Saudan once.
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pam w wrote:


Would a mixed race family moving into a little Austrian alpine village to set up a business find life easy?


Depends where, I guess, and if you actually try to integrate.

There are a lot of Turkish people living in small villages in Stubaital without any issues, for example. I live in a tiny (so small I have to escape to Innsbruck every weekend for some life) village (in Vorarlberg, which is probably the weirdest and most conservative area of Austria!) for a company started by an 'outsider' (German), my colleagues are German, British, Lithuanian, Polish, Dutch and Chilean, and none of the locals have been anything other than welcoming and friendly - even to those who didn't/don't speak German. My boss's sister in law also just moved here and started a small business.

There are plenty of foreign owned businesses around Ötztal, Landeck, St Anton, etc, too (including some of the biggest summer tourism businesses). It's only generally old people who tend to be ultra-conservative, homo(xeno)phobic racists, but that's the same all around the world inc. the UK - there's that generation who were brought up a certain way and just won't change their minds. Thankfully they're generally too old to have any authority or power, so can just be ignored.
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rob@rar wrote:
pam w wrote:
The truth seems to be that the people who run the mountains, in many resorts throughout the Alps, do their best to keep everybody else out.
Perhaps by (mis)using laws that are designed to ensure the public have access to a wide range of professional services with appropriate safety standards. One of the things I find frustrating in this general debate is the number of people who think the EU/national laws are designed to protect a small group of workers (who may or may not have been born in the mountains) rather than protect the interests of the consumer.


I don't think the laws are designed to be protectionist but in the case of ski instruction I think they are applied with that objective and outcome. The issue is proportionality.
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@pam w,
Quote:
Would a mixed race family moving into a little Austrian alpine village to set up a business find life easy
Speaking for Kleinwalsertal, which like @clarky999's village is part of Voralberg but possibly even more remote, we have an Indian and a Chinese restaurant, and a whole load of foreigners from all over the Balkans and Turkey. No particular problems with that. You just need to understand that nobody, not even people from other parts of Voralberg, will ever be considered 'Einheimisch', no matter how many years you live there.
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Same principle goes for the Hampshire village in which I live actually. I've only been here 20+ years so still rank as an uppity incomer with opinions above my station.
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