As UN's Ban Ki-moon Slammed for Union Busting, Echo and Arria of UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 12 -- While the UN continues to  preach transparency, democracy and even lack of censorship around the world, in elections held last and this December inside the UN, decay was the rule. 

  And the UN Secretariat's goal was the same: to find friendly interlocutors who won't say when the Emperor has no clothes.

 For the UN Staff Union, a letter went to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today protesting his failure to recognize the Staff Union and its voting results last December -- essentially, breaking the Union.

  Meanwhile Ban' office props up as interlocutor on media issues the "United Nations Correspondents Association," a group whose Executive Board members sought to get the investigative Press thrown out, and now happily play softball soccer with Ban. 

  It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance, with the censor in chief returned, charging $100 and more to hear an Italian tenor sing - of Haiti but not the cholera the UN brought -- in an old bank building in Manhattan. This is how the UN rots.

  Here's from today's letter to Ban Ki-moon, which Inner City Press witnessed being delivered to various UN offices on the morning of December 11, 2014:

Mr. Secretary-General,

You may be aware that the Office of Legal Affairs approved the Staff Union’s Statute and Regulations on behalf of the Secretary-General in 2007, consistent with the provisions of Staff Regulation 8.1(b), which mirrors the principles of Article 21(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The actions of your Administration in denying official recognition to the elected staff representatives and executive leadership of the 45th Staff Council represent a flagrant and wilful abuse of authority and utter disregard for Staff Regulations 8.1(a) and (b) and the basic human rights of the staff in New York Headquarters to freely elect their representatives. It is time to correct your Administration's insidious choice of the desirable "staff representatives" with whom to engage in New York. Never in the history of the United Nations has any Administration undermined the systemic and institutional practices and processes that ensure that the Secretary-General and the staff, through their elected representatives, can continuously engage in constructive dialogue.

I call upon you, as Chief Administrative Officer of the United Nations, to correct this injustice and to restore ethical behaviour to your Administration by instructing the USG/DM to grant with immediate effect time release and facilities to the elected members of the 45th Staff Council and its executive leadership, as determined by the electorate through free and fair elections last December.

   Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the letter and its argument on December 12; Dujarric said he would check into it. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Dark Talk of Hot Desks, “Ban Ki-moon's Sweatshop," Staff Allege

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 3 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon having effectively broken its Staff Union, now things take 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.

   

Amid UN Layoffs, Union Busting & Haiti Cholera Dodge, Ban Ki-moon to Meet NYC Mayor De Blasio

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 2, more here -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is now slated to meet with New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio on June 2 at 3:30 pm at City Hall. 

   The meeting, rescheduled from the day of the gas explosion in East Harlem, comes at a time when for example the UN Development Program is set to eliminate up to 30% of its jobs in New York. How would Ban Ki-moon justify this?
 
   Ban's Secretariat itself has declined to recognize the Staff Union slate which won elective office in December, essentially breaking the union. How would Ban justify this?

  Beyond the layoff issues, as Inner City Press' March 2014 reporting on New York City Council members and human rights sketched out, Ban's refusal to take responsibility for the UN bringing cholera to Haiti has many grumbling in NYC. If Ban met the New York City Council, this issue would come up.

But Ban accepts as his head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous of France, who outright refuses to answer Press questions, video here and here. This would never fly in New York City -- outside of the UN.

 On March 25, 2014 Inner City Press reported on the Urban Justice Center's report card on the Council, assigning grade from A+ down to a C and C- in Staten Island to members of the NYC City Council. 

  The report "revisited two recent land-use projects -- Willets Point in Queens and Seward Park Extension Urban Park Renewal Area in Manhattan, which impact New Yorkers' housing, workers' and government accountability rights. It also discusses the human rights implications of waterfront redevelopment projects in Mill Basin, Brooklyn and St. George, Staten Island in post Hurricane Sandy New York City."

  The UN famously failed during Super Storm Sandy, neglecting to inform Ambassadors when it would be closed and when their cars, with diplomatic plates, could be removed from the UN's underground garages, as Inner City Press reported.

  In Haiti, the UN thumbs its nose at principles of accountability, refusing to even acknowledge service of process of legal papers in court cases from bringing cholera to the Island. 

    Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was going to meet with Mayor Bill De Blasio until it got canceled on the day of the East Harlem gas explosion.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access asked why it was not on Ban's public schedule, but UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said since it got canceled, this did not have to be answered. Isn't the right to information also a human right?

  The view east from the UN is of Queens, and it is notable that Queens Council members score low on human rights, with Peter Vallone Jr. among the bottom three. 

  The top eight in the rankings are all from Manhattan or Brooklyn; the top Bronxite after that represent Riverdale. Have any Councilmembers joined the call on the US Mission to the UN, or State Department in DC, to hold the UN accountable for cholera in Haiti? If all politics are local, they should. 

On the afternoon of March 25, Inner City Press asked UJC's Research and Policy Coordinator Nicole Bramsted if the reports considered Council members' work on such issues as holding the UN accountable for cholera in Haiti -- or, one might add, extending a human rights monitoring mandate to the UN mission in Western Sahara. Inner City Press also ask for any comment on there being no Bronx (or Queens) Council members in the top eight ranked members.

  Bramsted and her colleague replied that such work is included in the narrative portion of the surveys, for example resolutions for the Senate to ratify CEDAW; low scoring geographies, it was said, could be held up in the spotlight.

   On current June 2014 UN system layoff proposals, for many weeks there have been rumblings about “Helen Clark's cut backs” at UNDP, the UN Development Program. 

   This week the rumbling spiked, with the UNDP staff union holding a meeting in the UN's basement on May 29 to discuss the loss of up to 30% of UNDP's jobs in New York.

  So on May 31 when Helen Clark re-tweeted praise of her visit to Belarus from her representative in the country, Sri Lankan national Sanaka Samarasinha, Inner City Pressreplied: "What about the UNDP layoffs?"

   The response came not from Helen Clark -- who rarely if ever holds question and answer press availabilities at the UN in New York -- but from Samarasinha, that the UNDP layoffs "must always be transparent & being fit for purpose. We strive toward that end."

  Inner City Press thanked Samarasinha, adding it will try to make the proposed layoffs transparent. In that spirit, we now publish Helen Clark's May 19 letter to staff:

Dear Colleagues,

Last year the Executive Board approved a new Strategic Plan for UNDP, and since then the whole organization has been making the changes necessary to fully implement that plan. One of the three pillars of that plan was improving institutional effectiveness. To that end the organization has conducted significant reviews of its performance and we have all been involved in planning and implementing changes. At the country office level most of you are well on your way to completing the financial sustainability exercise which has led to many changes. Also, over recent months we have been going through a structural change exercise at the headquarters and regional levels to achieve a number of efficiency gains.

We committed to:

· Moving more of our policy and support services to the regional level so that we are closer to our country offices.

· Removing unnecessary duplication between bureau

· Ensuring our functions are properly aligned through the organization to improve accountability and professional standards

· Improving our span of control so that we have better career paths for younger staff.

· Reducing our spending on staff salaries so that we can stay within the integrated budget limits set by the Board in September.

· Ensuring we free up resources to invest in new areas required to deliver on the Strategic Plan

All Bureaux have been working hard on how to reorganize functions and reduce costs. This has not been an easy exercise and I must commend both my management and the many staff involved for their commitment to coming up with solutions.

We are now at the stage where we are ready to release new organograms for all bureau. This will happen on Wednesday this week (NY time). These organograms will reflect a much different UNDP from what we now have. Our services will be much more focused in the regions and we will be leaner. We will have significantly fewer D grade positions relative to other professional and general services grades.

This means that many peoples jobs are affected, and we will be embarking on a realignment process aimed at being as fair and transparent as possible to fill the new positions.

Details of the new organograms will be released on Wednesday 21 May, and managers in all bureaux will be available to discuss with staff what the implications are for their bureau.

I understand, however, that some staff may wish to take the opportunity to leave UNDP, rather than compete for new positions. To facilitate this we will be making available a limited number of voluntary separation packages. The details associated with this are attached to this email, and if affected staff members are interested in taking this option they should discuss this with their manager.

All organograms will be made available on a dedicated intranet site, and at that time all staff at headquarters and working at regional level centres will receive formal notification that they are within the definition of affected staff. Bureau managers will then work with individual staff members to confirm the status of their existing position. Information will also be available on the processes which will be used for the realignment exercises which will have to follow. Let me assure you that these exercises will be designed to be as fair and transparent as possible and will ensure that existing rights under staff rules are respected.

Finally let me say to you all that I recognize that this is not an easy time for staff. I also know that we can be a stronger more effective development organization which can make real differences in millions of peoples’ lives. By demonstrating that to the world, I have no doubt that there are many exciting opportunities out there for UNDP to build on .

Helen Clark
UNDP Administrator

  Another source told Inner City Press that Clark wants to “force people, many women, many who are head of household, to be deported after one month [when their G-4 visas would expire], and force many staff who are just 2, 3, 4 years from early retirement age out, so they will miss out on their after-service health insurance. If they get away with this at UNDP, it will quickly spread to the rest of the UN system. Oh, and by the way, the men and women at D1, D2 and ASGs are unaffected.”

  This, Secretariat staff say, is similar to current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's mobility or “5 year rule” - now imposed on regular staff, but seemingly not applied Ban's higher ranking friends. UNease is growing. Another description here, from IPS.

  The connection is that Helen Clark wants to replace Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General, despite the the post as his successor said to be reserved for the Eastern European group which has never held it. Clark is banking on gender trumping geography, and job cutting seems to be her campaign issue for Western, donor countries.

  A well placed source tells Inner City Press Clark told management currently employed at UNDP to “drop what they are doing and work on her campaign” for S-G, they would be rewarded with a higher post in the Secretariat if she comes to replace Ban.

Footnote: In the Secretariat, the hold-over staff union which barely fought Ban during its time in power now presents itself as supporting UNDP worker, and as... still the staff union, despite the December vote and controversy since.
 
   This rift only benefits those pushing for lay-off, just like theUN's Censorship Alliance getting the first question and big room results in softball coverage of the UN, here. We'll and the Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this.

   

At UN, Staff Union Protests Ban's Mobility, Of Double Standards, Spin and Scribes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 -- While the UN continues to  preach transparency, democracy and even lack of censorship around the world, in two elections held in December inside the UN, disputes and decay were the rule, and have grown ever worse since.

   Now on March 20, even as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon refuses to recognize any UN Staff Union, the ticket which received the most votes in December held a protest outside the Budget Committee. Inner City Press tweeted photos here & here.

  The topic was Ban's "mobility" proposal, which is in front of the Committee "without any counter-proposals from staff," as the flier handed out at the protest put it.

  While this proposal would send staff to far flung duty posts, the protesters said without regard to family situations, Ban has advisers who dodge his "five year" mobility rule by simply changing job titles but remaining in New York. Protesters mentioned Bob Orr, who has his own proposal in front of the Budget Committee, and senior adviser Kim Won-soo.

   In any event, even as the Secretariat tries in essence to break the Union, the actions continue. Inside the budget committee, Management chief Yukio Takasu presented an update on the Capital Master Plan renovation, which the protesters said would spend yet more money on security while some of them are being laid off, pending an arbitration decision.

  Back on March 11, new UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric tried to put his own headline on the protests.

  He said it was only about the Publishing Section -- which Inner City Press has covered since the UN used Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to eliminate jobs -- but the problems under Ban run much deeper.

  Dujarric on March 10 called the continued pay at the Under Secretary General level for Augustine Mahiga a short stint, closely aligned with a board of correspondents who clapped for him, and for Ban Ki-moon. It's a new development, and one in which the Free UN Coalition for Access will not participate. Last video here.

  On March 11, Dujarric dodged on a new Haiti cholera case filed in Federal Court in Brooklyn; he talked about "protection of minorities" being upfront. But on March 10 he said he hadn't watched the brutal footage of Tamils being killed by the Sri Lankan Army; there has still been no comment by the Secretariat.

  Back on February 11, despite a Staff Union election have been conducted including in the UN Lobby in December, since Ban's Secretariat has not recognized the winners a call for new Polling Officers went out. This despite a meeting earlier that day at which the caller did not disclose this course of action. The next day, UN Security had to be called to try to put down the dispute.

  Also on February 11, having moved to break the UN staff union by citing alleged irregularities in voting, the UN Secretariat held a closed door meeting with Permanent Representative on Ban Ki-moon's "mobility" proposal, which the union opposed. The meeting was not in the day's UN Journal, and was not on UNTV. 

  Then as noted Ban Ki-moon held a lunch and "secret" question and answer session, with no question about Ukraineand the UN's derivative role, with what's become the UN's Censorship Alliance, despite its leadership openly violating the group's own constitution, which they recently put back online, by not having the required financial meeting in the first half of January, as promised in an email disclosing a donated Samsung television subsequently denied by UNCA 2013-14 president Pam Falk of CBS.

   Nor has the Ukraine-less Q&A at this lunch been disclosed to the wider press corps or public, despite a formal request from the Free UN Coalition for Access:

a tape or transcript of what the Secretary General said today this lunch: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgOCAllCUAAwTxU.jpgSince the photo shows tape recorders, this is a request to be informed if any embargo was placed on what the Secretary General said. If not, this is a request including on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access for an explanation, why this was not provided to all correspondents, and for the tape (or transcript) forthwith.

  What Nesirky's office did after that was to email out Ban's prepared remarks, with no question and answer, much less what is understood as his comments on crimes against humanity. (Since Ban was silent at the time on those in Sri Lanka, some ask, is it any wonder? Click here for UNCA's "leadership" on Sri Lanka.)

   How can the UN cite rules against one group, the union, while ignoring them on another? The answer is that the union fights or pushes to hold Ban accountable, while the UNCA leadership does not. So one is broken, the other lunched with.

  Most telling are direct censorship efforts by Louis Charbonneau the UN bureau chief of Reuters, with its Permanent seat on UNCA's board. He got Google to ban from its Search a complaint he filed with the UN trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, (mis) using the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act as diagnosed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's straight up censorship, and it's enough, well, to lose your lunch. But not today, apparently.

  More contrast: in the UN Staff Union election, in which an incumbent sought to stay on despite term limits, there werecharges of illegal polling, and an attempt to stop paying the Elections Services Company.

   Now, the ticket that came out on top in the election has written to UN Department of Management chief Yukio Takasu for a statement if he and the UN recognize this union leadership.

   Takasu presided over a Department of Management town hall meeting at which impacts on staff members were discussed -- but without a recognized union?

   Inner City Press is informed that in the UN facility in Valencia, for example, contract workers will re obtained through the UN Office for Project Services. Union-busting and outsourcing, at the UN.

  On December 17 Inner City Press published the results,putting the document online here:

Winner with 430 votes: Ticket 1 [They have thanked voters]

President Stephen Kisambira (DESA/PD)

First Vice-President Emad Hassanin (DGACM/MPD/PS)

Second Vice-President Leonid Dolgopolov (DSS/DSSS/SSS)

2d place with 231 votes: Ticket 2

President Nadir A. Dirar Bashir (DGACM/MPD/PS/DTPU)...

  We will continue to cover that showdown, which is at least competitive. Even more decayed is the United Nations Correspondents Association or UN's Censorship Alliance. 

  To compare: while the UN uses a dispute about the legality of the December election to refuse to recognize those who came out on top in the union election, the fact the UNCA has again violated its own Constitution, only today put back online, by not holding a meeting about its finance in the first half of January is ignored by the UN. Because UNCA serves this UN.

   It's simple: the UNCA Constitution Article 7, 1, states "The Association shall convene an annual Membership Meeting during the first half of the month of January."

  This didn't happen; instead, 2013-14 president Pamela Falk of CBS distributed November 25 minutes, which also directly referred to a donated Samsung television which UNCA later denied, stating as to the Constitution that

"It was noted that the meeting was a General Meeting, not the Annual General Meeting. The UNCA constitution requires an Annual General meeting that should be held in the first half of January; the date was set for January 14th. There was discussion and a vote for a meeting on December 5, but because the budget will not be completed until year's end, the meeting will be held, as the Constitution requires in January."

   Despite this acknowledgment of the requirements of the UNCA Constitution, the meeting was not held in the first half of January, or even in January at all.

  A Constitutionally-invalid meeting was finally held -- largely about, what else, another party, like the one held March 7 even as the Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict continued.

 Reporting on the Security Council is undermine by UNCA's laxity: there are fewer and fewer UNTV stakeouts, as potential speakers are diverted to private chats in the so-called Turkish Lounge. This happened on February 10, while the "new" UNCA fed quotes from French president Hollande's state dinner in Washington.

    Ban's UN hands the first question and more to UNCA, which does not challenge Ban. In 2012 its leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, pointing at a factual article Inner City Press published about Sri Lanka, the UN and conflicts of interest.

  Ban's Secretariat now admits on Sri Lanka a "systemic failure" - his Deputy Jan Eliasson repeatedly says that -- but UNCA, which still has no rules against trying to throw journalists out of the UN, nor apparently any conflict of interest rules, makes no admission, no reforms.

  It demands the first question at press conferences even if it has nothing to ask, or the answers will never be published.

  Not surprisingly it is in decay. ng a 2009 trip to Sri Lanka with Ban Ki-moon and UK humanitarian chief Sir John Holmes not only didn't report Holmes on the record comment that he deleted all complaining emails from Tamils -- she said the Press reporting this "ruined" relations with Holmes for her and, for example, Reuters. Though over 2000 journalists are accredited at the UN, in December 2013 only 111 even tried to vote in the three days of polling -- and door to door demands to vote for -- the United Nations Correspondents Association. Seven of these ballots failed. The incumbent Pamela Falk of CBS, running unopposed, still managed to not get 26 of the 104 votes cast.

  But as a result of UNCA's "Ball" with Ban, she got herfashion photo in the NYT Styles section and made sure to hype it up, online and in the briefing room before being handed, only to waste, the first of four questions on the South Sudan crisis on December 23.

  Falk's vote total of 78 was lower than the 85 obtained in December 2011 by her predecessor, who was the one who first demanded that Inner City Press remove an article about Sri Lanka from the Internet, click here for that.

 The article UNCA "leaders" tries to censor reported on the previous financial relationship of Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative with UNCA's then president, in the context of this president screening in the UN the Sri Lankan government's war crimes denial film, without asking or the consent of Inner City Press then on the Executive Committee of UNCA.

  No reforms in UNCA were ever instituted after this.

 Inner City Press after withstanding a kangaroo court UNCA proceeding quit the organization and co-founded the newFree UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, to actually defend the right of free press and free inquiry in and about the UN system.

    In 2012 UNCA "leaders" tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as documented by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Voice of America asked the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation; VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters, click here for that.

The Reuters first vice president of UNCA spied for the UN, giving them an internal anti Press UNCA document three minutes after promising not to (story here, document here,audio here). 

 While he has stepped off, the Reuters reporter he supervised (and who also tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) campaigned to get on UNCA's board, demanded on camera in a UN noon briefing to all present, "Have you voted?" It's as if Reuters has a Permanent seat on UNCA's 15-member Executive Committee, like the P5 in the Security Council.

Here are the December 2013 results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

Dec '13 Dec '11

Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio

1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV

2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan

* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour

3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress

38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24

Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press

Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News

Members at Large:

* 57 1. Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV

* 57 2. Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel

22 3. George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media

* 50 4. Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)

* 51 5. Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency

* 69 6. Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada

* 56 7. Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor

49 8. J. Tuyet Nguyen, German Press Agency DPA

* 67 9. Michelle Nichols, Reuters

41 10. Edwin Nwanchukwu, News Agency of Nigeria

27 11. Cia Pak, Scannews

*54 12. Valeria Robecco, ANSA

* 54 13. Sangwon Yoon , Bloomberg

  Some of the elected are new and their positions on UNCA Executive Committee members trying to get other (investigative) media thrown out of the UN, and the need to preclude this and UNCA leaders' anonymous social media trolling, are not yet known. (Some not elected were among the better / more diverse candidates.)

When the UN Correspondents Association leaders tried stealthy to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and have failed to institute any reform since, it became the UN's Censorship Alliance. Party on. Watch this site.