At UN, AFL-CIO & SMCC Protest Ban Ki-Moon's Anti-Labor Moves & Memo, Air Tests of Capital Master Plan Blocked

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 20 -- News of the labor problems of the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has now spread beyond the UN.

Inner City Press has learned that the major union confederation AFL-CIO has written in protest to Ban, about Ban's proposed elimination of 17 union Broadcast Engineer jobs. Click here for the letter, which the NY AFL-CIO copied to Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Inner City Press has been covering the downward trend in Ban's relations with labor for some months, most recently publishing a leaked “mobility” memo from Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar to his chief of management Angela Kane and head of the UN Office of Human Resource Management Catherine Pollard, it is suggested that “40 percent of total recruitment in every Department every year be set aside for applicants external to the Department.”

Before that publication, Inner City Press asked Under Secretary General Angela Kane about the memo. She said, We think about a lot of things -- but when you write about them it makes trouble.

The trouble, though, come from affected UN staff themselves. The fourteen UN system unions in the SMCC have written to Ban, Nambiar and Kim Won-soo among others, citing the memo “now in the public domain,” asking Ban to “accept that your memo can and will no longer be a point of discussion of action.” Click here for that letter.

So with the Ban administration is under fire, how does it react?

Affected staff accused of posting a flyer about their plight were threatened with being fired. Ban's spokesman do not answer questions about the disputes: not Inner City Press' question months about the broadcast engineers, not more recent questions to lead spokesman Martin Nesirky about the elevator operator positions being pushed out of Union 32BJ, not yet this, on safety, from April 19:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask two questions about the building. One concerns air tests. Previously, the Staff Union was allowed to conduct air tests for asbestos and other toxins, and I am told that now either the Department of Management or the CMP [Capital Master Plan] has blocked any type of air tests. Can you either confirm or deny that, and explain why those tests are not allowed to be performed by those who work here?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq: No. I will check with the Capital Master Plan.

But 23 hours later, no information has been provided.

The CMP, however, was responsible for loud drilling and hammering while the Security Council met about Sudan on the morning of April 20.

Weeks ago, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson's office about a new ASG working in the Department of Safety & Security, questioning why that appointment had never been publicly announced. An answer was promised but never given.

Now this week the appointment has finally been announced, with the statement that General Assembly sign off on creating the ASG position had belatedly been obtained. But what does the GA and member states think about Ban's mounting problems with labor? Watch this site.

As UN Under Ban Ki-moon Attacks Unions, G Staff & IBEW Engineers, Will Labor Fight Capital Master Plan?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 6 -- With the US polarized by fights between labor and state governments, and with the UN attributing turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East to employment and cost of living issues, the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has moved on several fronts to undercut labor rights.

For some time, Ban's administration has been trying to break the UN Staff Union, most recently by moving to no longer collect dues for it. Meanwhile, it has moved to pay its General Service staff less frequently, and to downgrade Tradespeople to general service staff.

Ban's office has been served a petition with hundreds of signatures attached, protesting his move to pay General Service staff less frequently.

The text of the petition, attached, notes the UN's “United States Headquarters Agreement, Section 7(b) which states, 'Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement or in ,the General Convention, the Federal, State and local law of the United States shall apply within the Headquarters district.'”

That then is a question: does US and local labor law apply to what Ban's UN does to workers in the Headquarters district?

If it does, not only would or should the UN have problems with the Democratic Party constituency it works most closely with -- most recently in defense, along with Peter King (R-NY), of the UN keeping $100 million in US Tax Equalization Funds -- but also with the organized labor groups from the AFL-CIO and Teamsters who are on the UN campus as part of the Capital Master Plan.

One labor side observer mused that Ban Ki-moon is creating a little Wisconsin on the banks of the East River.

After weeks of telling Inner City Press to hold off the story because negotiations continued, on March 6 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, Local 1212, sent Inner City Press and a handful of other UN correspondents a press release about workers of UN TV, as well they say of IBEW engineers in UN Radio and Conference Services:

NEW YORK, NY, TBD 2011: Local union representatives are preparing for what they describe as United Nations actions' that could result in bankrupting their pension fund and significantly reducing the size of their bargaining unit. The United Nations has notified IBEW Local 1212 through its contractor, Priority Productions Services, Inc., (PPS), that it intends to remove seventeen union positions and place them under the direct auspices of the United Nations. The individuals hired in these positions will receive less pay than the individuals they will be responsible for supervising. In addition to decreased benefits, these individuals will lose not only their collective bargaining rights, but also the protections provided by Federal and New York State Labor Laws.

The Union is concerned that this is just the first step, eventually leading to the UN's absorption of the remaining bargaining unit positions by the end of June 2012. The Union currently has 67 members employed as broadcast engineers by PPS at the UN. After this initial "reorganization", the unit size will be decreased to fifty. Although, the Union engineers have provided uninterrupted television and radio broadcast, and conferencing services at the United Nations headquarters in NYC for the past sixty-seven years, the UN seems focused on decreasing, if not eliminating, the Union's presence.

The UN's actions will require seventeen current supervisors and maintenance engineers to reapply for their jobs as UN staff employees at a lower pay rate and with a considerable reduction in benefits. They will have to compete for their positions with UN staff members, as well as with applicants from the general public. The supervisors and maintenance engineers may opt to decline to apply for the UN positions, in which case they will automatically be demoted to non-supervisory positions at a significant reduction in compensation. The scheme will result in a ripple effect as one IBEW engineer will be laid-off for each supervisor or maintenance engineer who declines to apply for the new UN position. Additionally, the elimination of seventeen positions would seriously impact the Union Pension Fund's financial stability as there would be a reduction in contributions to the fund. The resultant decrease in participants in the medical coverage offered by contractor PPS may also lead to an increase cost for the remaining engineers.

The UN intends to implement these changes on June 30, 2011 when the current union contract expires. The United Nations has stated that its plan is a cost cutting measure that will provide the UN with continuity. Union representatives have offered cooperation in negotiating an alternative resolution with the UN in exchange for protecting the collective bargaining rights of its members. The union maintains that it is prepared to offer workable, alternative scenarios. The UN has not commented.

Inner City Press previously covered when the UN, under officials Angela Kane, Andrew Nye and Joan McDonald, gave the contract for this work to sports broadcasting company Venue Services Group on the verge of bankruptcy which as it shrank moved its furniture inside the UN for storage. Now Ms. McDonald is back, as one of many Ban administration returning retirees, making new decisions, with no accountability, some say.

But this time, with the CMP underway and being questioned, there could be consequences for these anti-labor moves. Watch this site.