UN Lags on Labor Rights, Culinart Food Workers Laid-Off in January, Staff Union Broken, Censors Return

By Matthew Russell Lee, Scoop

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon having effectively broken its own Staff Union, now food service workers inside the UN face "lay-off status" for at least one month. Click here to view document obtained by Inner City Press.

  Aramark had the contract for the UN cafeteria, Vienna Cafe, Delegates Dining Room and Lounge; it was extended through December 31 while being put out to bid.

   Then food workers in the UN exclusively told Inner City Press that Aramark has lost the contract and Culinart, a smaller firm, had been awarded it. (Inner City Press first reported this on October 28, here.) 

  The food workers told Inner City Press there have been no communications to them about their future employment after December 31.

Now on that day Inner City Press has obtained and is exclusively publishing this communication from Michael Pitkewicz of Culinart to the company's UN employees:

"The United Nations has informed us that the Delegates Dining Room will be closed from December 31, 2014 to January 30, 2015. During that time you will be on lay-off status. The Management Team will contact you to advise when you should report back to work."

  Happy holidays. 

  Meanwhile inside the UN, Ban has effectively broken the UN Staff Union. 

  Late October saw the submission to management of a Joint Statement by the former and current members of the Arbitration Committee, which restated the facts of their proceedings regarding the December 2013 Union elections and their subsequent rulings. But no response from Ban's UN, in the run up to his controlled "Global Town Hall" staff meeting in early January.

 Upstairs things have taken a turn toward the surreal, or toward the “sweatshop,” sources tell Inner City Press.

  When the 38 story UN Secretariat building was renovated, many floors were left with the “open plan” in which staff members no longer had walls or privacy. Instead there are so-called “focus booths” the size of closets in which one could make a phone call.

(On the press floor, the UN said it would maintain UN landline telephones in the booths, as requested by Inner City Press and now the Free UN Coalition for Access, to allow direct dialing of UN Peacekeeping missions like the one in Mali where nine peacekeepers from Niger were killed in November. 

  But there are no phones, the old UN Correspondents Association never followed through, maintaining a large mostly unused room while media left without offices have been given the focus booths -- while on December 30 offering self-congratulation, here, before the return of the Censor in Chief. We'll have more on this.)

  But upstairs it is crazier. Now the proposal is for “hot desks.” As described to Inner City Press by staff members, it involves a “first come, first served” system for desk space. If a staff member is not among the earliest, he or she might be left with no desk to work from.

  He or she is also an issue raised. As one staff member put it, she as a woman does not necessarily want to be dealt out at random each day with “male staff members I don't want to be next to” a mere two feet away.

“Why not just let us work from home, if this is how little they value us?” another staffer asked, demanding to know if Ban Ki-moon and “his insiders” will also work on hot desks.

  Inner City Press has, of course, sought up the Ban Administration's defense of the "hot desks," and offers these links: http://undocs.org/A/RES/68/247B andhttp://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gaab4088.doc.htm

 We'll have more on this.

Footnote: on the controversy of the new head of investments of the UN Pension Fund, the old union raised the issue but says it has been rebuffed, despite the Maryland litigation Inner City Press reported on last month. Retaliation continues, and still the UN has no Freedom of Information Act applying to it. The Free UN Coalition for Access will continue to press on this issue and others. Watch this site.

   

UN Lags on Labor Rights, Food Workers in the Dark, Staff Union Broken, Hot-Desked

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 7 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon having effectively broken its own Staff Union, now the food service workers inside the UN face uncertainty or layoff by New Years.

  Aramark has had the contract for the UN cafeteria, Vienna Cafe, Delegates Dining Room and Lounge; it was extended through December 31 while being put out to bid.

   Now food workers in the UN tell Inner City Press that Aramark has lost the contract and "Culinary," a smaller firm, has been awarded it. (Inner City Press first reported this name on October 28, here.) 

  The food workers tell Inner City Press there have been no communications to them about their future employment after December 31. Happy holidays.

  Inquires in UN Procurement find only the Aramark extension to December 31: $58,327 for "provision of management and operations of catering facilities at UNHQ in NY." (Yes, the UN pays Aramark.) 

  While the cleaning staff inside the UN mostly keep their jobs when the contract shifted from OneSource to ABM, the cleaning workers are members of powerful 32-BJ. 

  Meanwhile inside the UN, Ban has effectively broken the UN Staff Union. 

  Two week ago saw the submission to management of a Joint Statement by the former and current members of the Arbitration Committee, which restated the facts of their proceedings regarding the December 2013 Union elections and their subsequent rulings. But no response from Ban's UN.

 Things have taken a turn toward the surreal, or toward the “sweatshop,” sources tell Inner City Press.

  When the 38 story UN Secretariat building was renovated, many floors were left with the “open plan” in which staff members no longer had walls or privacy. Instead there are so-called “focus booths” the size of closets in which one could make a phone call.

(On the press floor, the UN said it would maintain UN landline telephones in the booths, as requested by Inner City Press and now the Free UN Coalition for Access, to allow direct dialing of UN Peacekeeping missions like the one in Mali where nine peacekeepers from Niger were killed today. But there are no phones, the old UN Correspondents Association never followed through, maintaining a large mostly unused room while media left without offices have been given the focus booths.)

  But upstairs it is crazier. Now the proposal is for “hot desks.” As described to Inner City Press by staff members, it involves a “first come, first served” system for desk space. If a staff member is not among the earliest, he or she might be left with no desk to work from.

  He or she is also an issue raised. As one staff member put it, she as a woman does not necessarily want to be dealt out at random each day with “male staff members I don't want to be next to” a mere two feet away.

“Why not just let us work from home, if this is how little they value us?” another staffer asked, demanding to know if Ban Ki-moon and “his insiders” will also work on hot desks.

  Inner City Press has, of course, sought up the Ban Administration's defense of the "hot desks," and offers these links: http://undocs.org/A/RES/68/247B andhttp://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gaab4088.doc.htm

 We'll have more on this.

Footnote: on the controversy of the new head of investments of the UN Pension Fund, the old union raised the issue but says it has been rebuffed, despite the Maryland litigation Inner City Press reported on last month. Retaliation continues, and still the UN has no Freedom of Information Act applying to it. The Free UN Coalition for Access will continue to press on this issue and others. Watch this site.

   

History Spun As Complaints to UN Blocked, Ban Ki-moon Q&A Withheld, History Books For Sale in Censors' Club?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 19 -- They say journalism is the first draft of history; one assumes that journalists would fight to have more rather than less information public, for history to be accurate. But not in today's UN.

The board of the UN's propped up United Nations Correspondents Association this month conducted a Q&A with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which has yet to be disclosed. 

 The UN bureau chief of permanent member Reuters lobbied Google to ban from its search a leaked copy of his own anti-Press complaint to the UN, described as "for the record,"mis-using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. "For the record" - and yet disappeared from Google's search? What would a historian say about that?

  Now it emerges that UNCA has a third generation historian as a freelance member, and according to UNCA President Pamela Falk of CBS he'll promote and offer for sale a book of family letters after a 5 pm "cocktail reception" while, one story down, a Security Council debate with 67 speakers including Ukraine and Sri Lanka goes on about, what else, the rule of law. To this has the UN and its UN Censorship Association sunk.

The UN gives UNCA a big room, and a bigger auditorium when it wants to screen propaganda films such as that of Sri Lanka denying the detailed accusations of war crimes made in a documentary which was itself never shown in UN headquarters. This was and is public record, like the Reuters bureau chief's "for the record" anti-Press complaint to the UN before he got it banned from Google's search.

  This UNCA clubhouse, which in July hosted a faux "UN briefing" by Syria rebel leader Ahmad al Jarba, functions as a sort of backdoor into the UN. The historian, Stephen Schlesinger, on his web site describes the February 19 event only as "at the main UN Secretariat Building" -- as blurry as Jarba left it. Perhaps Schlesinger didn't know -- a historian in the Censors' Club? Only at the UN. Watch this site.

Footnote: The Schlesinger book signing is for a UN staff club -- not only has the UN Secretariat refused to recognize any leadership of the Staff Union, they have also banned staff clubs from using the cafeteria as was previously the practice. Now any such use requires paying exorbitant Security and Aramark charges, as for example the Indian "Spice Club" has noted to Inner City Press. 

  And so such events are driven into the Censors' Club, to prop them up so they can, when desired by those in UN power, perform their role. The solution is not to allow clubs to sell books in the Censors' Club - it is to re-open the cafeteria to the clubs, and to re-recognize the Staff Union. But that's not the trend in today's UNaccountable UN.

  Schlesinger has said, "the UN is amazingly resilient" - if so, it's time for it to start reforming, improving, and opening up.Watch this site.

   

UN Wants FDR Off-Ramp Closed Or Will Empty Its Library and Cafeteria, Pays Aramark's Costs

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- The United Nations is urging New York City to close the 42nd Sreet FDR Drive off-ramp, or it will vacate its Dag Hammarskjold Library and its annex including the cafeteria by the end of this year.

  Closing the off-ramp would obviously inconvenience driving New Yorkers. (At the same time, the UN is trying to takeover the Robert Moses Park just south of 42nd Street, as Inner City Press has previously covered, here.)

  But the UN says that there is not enough "off-set" from the ramp to the UN buildings, apparently referring to a car or truck bomb. The UN is installing bollards along First Avenue from 42nd to 48th Street for that purpose. It is constructing a new screening building on between 42nd and 43rd Street, with an eye toward eliminating the turnstiles currently in the UN lobby.

  The cafeteria is run by Aramark, right now with the UN covering all of the company's net operating costs. While still UNclear with whom, a new contract is set to be signed by the end of the year, according to the UN's (British) head of the Office of Central Support Services Stephen Cutts.

  At a meeting on February 7, Cutts said that Aramark "will re-open" the Delegates Dining Room on February 3. He was quickly reminded that has already happened -- that is, that February 3rd came before the date of his three minute speech on February 7 -- and he said, "I'm out of date."

  Michael Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan said that the North Lawn Building will be demolished by the end of 2015, and that this year's General Debate will be in the historical GA hall (on which there are still no windows).

  Catherine Pollard of the Office of Human Resources Management was there; as Inner City Press reported, she is competing to take over the Under Secretary General post at UNOPS in Copenhagen. The head of the UN's "UMOJA" system said that this will be expanded to all special political mission then to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and all Nairobi-related offices.

  Few questions were taken at this "Town Hall" meeting, about which a number of Department of Management staff complained to Inner City Press afterwards, offering exclusive audio to demonstrate what they were talking about. Does it make sense to leave the Library and cafeteria empty? Who made that determination? That is something we will be trying to determine. Watch this site.

  

Heads Up: NFL Concussions Litigation Discussed in UN, In Run-Up to Super Bowl XLVIII, Sponsored by Malawi, No Q&A - Why?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Four days before the National Football League's Super Bowl XLVIII is played in the New Jersey Meadowlands, a meeting about concussions is being held in the UN featuring current and former NFL players. Without much explanation, it is being sponsored by Malawi; a co-sponsor is Dominion Capital, which has invested in bio-medical companies involved in concussions.

Inner City Press, while covering the UN Security Council meeting about War and Its Lesson, obtained an "Internal Use Only" technical agenda, which lists among the participants former New York tight end Jeffrey Shockey and current New York Giant safety Antrel Rolle. (And see below.)

Skipping out on the Security Council debate for a moment, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber was NFL Network correspondent Andrea Kremer, asking her own questions about the NFL Concussion Litigation (the program said, "No Q&A.") Some players are angry they will not be helped; some have no insurance. Inner City Press tweeted photo here.

  In the next panel, a sports trainer said that younger child were happiest in wrestling because they were not competing. A mother from Concord, Massachusetts recounted having to withdraw one of her triplets from football. It was interesting.

  But one wondered: why was this in the UN? Why did Malawi sponsor it? Why was it in the UN Media Alert, with its "No Q&A" and financial firm sponsorship? The event took, apparently for the whole day, the UN Delegates' Dining Room, for which Aramark receives the funds. What's the UN's role in this?

  Also listed among participants in the "for internal use only" technical agenda were Ben Urecht, Clinton Portis, current Carolina Panthers cornerback Drayton Florence, Hank Baskett, Jermichael Finley, Jermaine Wiggins, Sidney Rice, Steve Weatherford and Darrell Reid; boxer Andre Berto and MLS player Tony Sanneh. His father, research finds, came from Gambia. What was the Malawi connection, then? Watch this site.

   

UN Confirms Layoff Letters Despite Libya Plan, Nothing on Aramark Layoffs, UMOJA, Staff Union Elections

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- The UN has confirmed to Inner City Press that it has sent layoff notices (or "your post does not exist" letters, in UN-ese) to Department of Safety and Security staff members. In this month of December, can the jobs be saved?

  Earlier today, after receiving numerous complaints, Inner City Press made several inquiries and published a story about the layoffs, or ten officers who received letters, and asked why they couldn't for example be placed in the new security mission in Libya.

  After publishing that exclusive first story, at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press put the question to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky. He said his office was already looking into it. And later, this arrived, which we publish in full:

Subject: Your question on UN Security personnel
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 1:19 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question at noon about security posts, the Spokesperson has the following to say:

The security posts in question are posts that were temporarily created to support the Capital Master Plan (CMP). The “associated costs” for the CMP, which is the funding source for these temporary posts, ends on 31 December 2013.

However, over the last 18 months, the Organization has put a great deal of effort into saving as many jobs as possible for these affected staff members. This has included finding posts within the Security and Safety Service at the UN Headquarters, as well as other UN security services globally, General Service posts, and field assignments. Of the 68 officers considered in the temporary hiring associated with the Capital Master Plan, there are 10 officers remaining on the list for placement.

  Again we note this: a UN Security person working in New York on a G4 visa, if they took the post to protect the UN Mission in Libya, their family would have to leave the US in thirty days. This is also the UN's hammer over whistleblowers.

  Meanwhile, inside the UN itself, for weeks those working in the Delegates' Dining Room have been asking why their place of work, run by the contractor Aramark, will close on December and not re-open. Aramark had been reducing services, cutting the hours of the staff cafeteria for example, with the UN saying nothing.

  When Inner City Press has asked about the enforced layoffs by Aramark of workers in the UN, the UN has shifted from saying it cares about the principles preached by the International Labor Organization to saying this is entirely up to the contractor -- a defense used then rejected by apparel makers like Levis, the Gap and Nikes. But not the UN.

  On November 29, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's top two spokespeople:

"Please confirm or deny that Aramark will cease mid-day service (and cut back on workers) in the Delegates Dining Room from December 20 on, and explain the UN's role in reduction of service and employment by Aramark, and when their contract with the UN will expire."

  So far no answer, including to other questions including these two, on labor relations and UMOJA/ waste at the UN:

"With the UN Staff Union election upcoming and dispute ranging from term limits to how voters are grouped and accredited, please describe the role of the UN and OHRM, including in light of a statement by ASG Pollard that 'OHRM had been in contact with Mr. Auda, Chairman of the Polling Officers, continually between 7 October when the second list of staff (as vetted by EOs was transmitted to him) and 28 October, 2013; and

"With regard to UMOJA, please respond to the (whistleblowers') critique that the project now uses 'Nova to assign expenses retroactively, for many years; it costs in fact much more than $200,000 $ only to capture the data."

Watch this site.

  

Exclusive: As UN Moves to Layoff Security Despite New Libya Plan & to Close Aramark Dining Room, of Labor Pains, Union Elections and UMOJA

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- Even at the UN it's the holiday season, but that hasn't stopped officials at the world body from announcing and imposing layoffs.

  Monday morning as Inner City Press entered to cover the first day of France's Security Council presidency, click here for that, it was informed that the UN had chosen this day to send letters to Security personnel, technically hired for the Capital Master Plan renovation, that they stand to be laid off.

  The timing is more than a little strange, coming soon after the Security Council approved a plan by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send 200 security personnel to Libya, to protect the UN mission there. Inner City Press was the first to report on the approval and will have more on this.

  For now we note this: a UN Security person working in New York on a G4 visa, if they took the post to protect the UN Mission in Libya, their family would have to leave the US in thirty days. This is also the UN's hammer over whisteblowers.

  Meanwhile, inside the UN itself, for weeks those working in the Delegates' Dining Room have been asking why their place of work, run by the contractor Aramark, will close on December and not re-open. Aramark had been reducing services, cutting the hours of the staff cafeteria for example, with the UN saying nothing.

  When Inner City Press has asked about the enforced layoffs by Aramark of workers in the UN, the UN has shifted from saying it cares about the principles preached by the International Labor Organization to saying this is entirely up to the contractor -- a defense used then rejected by apparel makers like Levis, the Gap and Nikes. But not the UN.

  On November 29, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's top two spokespeople:

"Please confirm or deny that Aramark will cease mid-day service (and cut back on workers) in the Delegates Dining Room from December 20 on, and explain the UN's role in reduction of service and employment by Aramark, and when their contract with the UN will expire."

  So far no answer, including to other questions including these two, on labor relations and UMOJA/ waste at the UN:

"With the UN Staff Union election upcoming and dispute ranging from term limits to how voters are grouped and accredited, please describe the role of the UN and OHRM, including in light of a statement by ASG Pollard that 'OHRM had been in contact with Mr. Auda, Chairman of the Polling Officers, continually between 7 October when the second list of staff (as vetted by EOs was transmitted to him) and 28 October, 2013; and

"With regard to UMOJA, please respond to the (whistleblowers') critique that the project now uses 'Nova to assign expenses retroactively, for many years; it costs in fact much more than $200,000 $ only to capture the data."

Watch this site.

   

At End of Azerbaijan's UN Security Council Month, Of African Splits, Lamb Chops & Layoffs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- When Azerbaijan held its End of Security Council presidency reception Wednesday night, it came minutes after competing meetings of Western and African diplomats two stories below, on the issue of Kenya and the International Criminal Court.

  The Westerners' meeting, delayed by getting locked out of the Permanent Five's clubhouse, ran past the 6:30 pm time set for the reception. When those in attendance poured out, most headed straight upstairs to the South Dining Room: for example, Australia's Gary Quinlan, Luxembourg's Sylvie Lucas, the UK's Mark Lyall Grant.

  France's Gerard Araud left later than the others, accompanied by his staffer who used to work for the ICC. Even the (south) glass door he tried to use to exit was locked. 

 To some, it echoed the way he and the French mission locked out the Press and sunlight in hand-picking which media could accompany and cover what was described as the "UN Security Council's Africa trip" earlier in the month.

  That was one example of how today's Security Council is dysfunctional. Saudi Arabia, of course, has said that as well, and after saying it is giving up the seat that without competition it won, the Saudis were not present at Wednesday's Council reception.

  Previous Council member India was, through its Deputy Permanent Representative. There was talk of the perennial,Security Council reform and General Assembly President John Ashe's strangely selected advisory group of six (none of whom were seen, at least by Inner City Press, at Wednesday's reception).

  Ban Ki-moon instead was accepting an award, on behalf of the UN, not for diplomacy but rather historic preservation - not the various anachronisms of the place, but its Capital Master Plan renovation. 

  (No mention was made that the UN is trying to take over the Robert Moses Playground right outside the window to construct an unimaginative building that, according to staff union sources, may not be needed given the massive layoffs that are planned, including at UNICEF and UNDP.)

  The North or Delegates Dining Room, full now of people in evening wear, will stop serving lunch on December 20, leaving the Aramark workers once again laid off. They ask, who chose Aramark as the UN's caterer, if they don't even want to keep the cafeteria open past 4:30 pm during General Debate week?

   Azerbaijan for its reception didn't go with the standard Aramark package including sushi but rather sausages, plov and lamb chops, all excellent. 

   Plov is a dish prevalent throughout the former Soviet space, and both Russia's Vitaly Churkin and his deputies were there, as was China's Permanent Representative Liu Jieyi. Elsewhere, to be diplomatic or in UNICEF's spirit, there were young children and the Red Sox' impending World Series win. And no, President Obama did not remain in Boston for the game.

At Azerbaijan's reception, UK's Lyall Grant carried by flag for the Western P3, fresh from his Reuters-echoed bid at Security Council reform: turning off speakers microphones when they surpass their allotted time, as he saw at the African Union in Addis Ababa on the French-led trip.

  If that can be learned from the AU, how about their deferral request for Kenya and other complaints about the ICC? This will be discussed on Thursday morning, in a session that is not even listed in the day's UN Journal. Did we say dysfunction? 

Footnotes: Several of these dysfunctions -- the lack of transparency in media selection for the Africa trip, for example, but also the banning Wednesday from the Council's "quiet room" of Polisario, a party to a Council agenda item -- are being challenged by the new Free UN Coalition for Access.  

 @FUNCA_info was formed because the stultified throw-back, which still demands the first question then wastes it, wouldn't challenge these things, even tried to get the Press thrown out. (The UN has threatened to suspend or withdraw Press accreditation for merely hanging the sign of UNCA, one floor down.) 

 Neither the first question demander nor her deputy were seen on Wednesday night, unlike if the US or UK were throwing the shindig. The UN preaches justice, even freedom of speech and press, but is run by very, very few, with little transparency. In ways large and small like this, we aim to change that. Watch this site.