At UN, As Pollard Flips to DGACM, Gettu Calls Female Critic “Emotional," Sources Complain to Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- In the UN's ongoing game of musical chairs, on July 31 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he is shifting Catherine Pollard from the Office of Human Resources Management over to become Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), replacing Franz Baumann of Germany.

  As Inner City Press previously reported, Pollard had declared herself the poster child of Ban's “mobility” policy, to only hold the same post -- or was it duty station? -- for five years. 

   No matter that, for example, Robert Serry has said on television he's been in his post six years. Pollard has made a lateral move, and Baumann's next move is not yet clear.

  What does DGACM do? As a sample, Inner City Press has already exclusively received a number of complaints about a meeting held by DGACM chief Tegegnework Gettu, also on July 31. According to sources, Gettu used the meeting to tell staff how well he is doing, how objective he is, that he has no personal agenda. (Click here for previously Inner City Press report.)

  But when he opened the floor, the first staff member who dared make a suggestion -- that verbatim is now nearly identical to translation -- was cut off and told that his was only a personal opinion.

  A female staffer who made a criticism was told by Gettu to not be “emotional.” Eventually Gettu was telling the assembled staff that the UN “is good” and “if you don't like it, walk away.”

  In fact, it was in DGACM that the staff member elected vice president of the Staff Union in December was terminated -- Gettu says he didn't re-apply for a job so he clearly didn't need one -- and it was in DGACM that staff members were subjected to bed bugs, among other things, in the Albano Building.

  On July 31, the sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that Gettu told DGACM staff that they may remain in the Albano Building on 46th Street until 2017 when, he says, the UN may have a “DC5” building, proposed to be built on the Robert Moses playground south of 42nd Street. Click here for Inner City Press story.

  There are many hardworking staff in DGACM, and even some in management may mean well. 

   But the type of self-serving speechifying at staff described to Inner City Press by sources on July 31 is indicative of the same UN which, for example among the press, evicted the News Agency of Nigeria from its work area claiming a lack of space while giving a large room to its favored UN Censorship Alliance (UNCA) -- which now says it will leave the room empty and locked from August 1 to August 19. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this. We'll have more on this.

   

UN Staff Protest Forced Relocation of Translator Space for Ban Ki-moon Big Wigs, Bugs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- When UN staff members marched in protest in front of Headquarters on May Day, they carried signs like "No Albano Building," and "UNinhabitable according to Shaaban." Video here.

  The Albano Building is on 46th Street and was rented by the UN to relocate workers including translators while the headquarters was renovated, for some $2 billion.

  But now that the renovation of the Secretariat is finished, the workers aren't being allowed to return. Their space, they say, is being given to big wigs from ECLAC and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations' Police Adviser unit, which were never there before.

  The translators are confined to a decrepit former factory called uninhabitable by DGACM chief Shaaban Shaaban in a 2010 memo to Angela Kane, who still a UN official.

  Kane is now UN negotiator on chemical weapons in Syria. It occurred: how can Kane find sarin in Syria if she couldn't or wouldn't find the roaches and bed bugs in the Albano Building?

  Inner City Press at the time exclusively wrote about the bed bugs, and the leaked memo subsequently quoted by staff, and today covers not only Kane but Shaaban's replacements. Many staff interviewed by Inner City Press on May Day blamed current Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann, and wondered what the incoming new chief of DGACM will do.

   "Where is Ban Ki-moon?" more than one staffer asked. Where indeed.

   It being May Day, the idea of worker action beyond marching arose. But it was explained to Inner City Press that while the interpreters could "shut the UN down," translators are in a more precarious position, with the prospect of outsourcing ever-more present. The Group of 77 and China push for multilingualism. But if they didn't?

The march was from 1:30 to 2:30 pm and garnered quite a bit of UN Security. Inner City Press is informed it was almost "outlawed." At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about the planned march, on which it had already published a story. Ban's spokesperson said peaceful protest would be allowed. And so it was, with UN Security even working to protect the march from limousines speeding out of the garage.

  Some UN communications "professionals" walked right on by, for example DPKO's Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer, last seen blocking questions from Inner City Press about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, Ladsous' partners. Click here for April 25 video.

  But several Security Council diplomats Inner City Press spoke with later on Wednesday were unaware of the protest, because of the timing. (One Permanent Representative of a Permanent Five member was a refreshing exception.) 

  "They should go it during GA week," another suggested, then specified they shouldn't be quoted advising UN workers how to get management's attention.

   It is member states who "own" the UN Secretariat, and who alone could hold it accountable. Appealing for the UN Secretariat to practice what it preaches, on freedom of the press or workers' rights, does not seem to work. For now. Watch this site.

May Day at UN Has Protest of Ban's "Forced Relocations," Free Speech Asserted

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- On May Day as workers worldwide rally and in some case strike, at UN Headquarters' entrance traffic circle a march will be held at 1:30 pm to protest Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's "broken promises" including on "forced relocations" of staff into a "substandard building."

  UN Translation staff have filed for and won a suspension of action blocking Ban's Secretariat from relocating them. Inner City Press has obtained the UN Dispute Tribunal order and puts it online, here. 

  By May 2, Ban's Secretariat has been directed to "address,inter alia, the following issues:

a. When were the Applicants notified for the first time of the proposed move? (Respondent is to include any supporting documentation.)

b. What is the legal status of the Capital Master Plan Guidelines, referred to in the applications? (Respondent is to provide the Tribunal with a copy of the Guidelines.)

c. What is the effective date of the proposed move to the Albano building? (Respondent is to include any supporting documentation.)

d. What are the official documents regulating the size of offices an cubicles in the United Nations? (Respondent is to provide the Tribunal with these documents.)"

  The protest organizers have said, and we agree, that there is, even at the UN, a "right to exercise free speech... At 13:30, we will proceed to the fountain that is located in the circle in front of the Secretariat Building to peacefully voice our disagreements with management on anything related to the Albano building, from the broken promises that brought us here in the first place to this ill-conceived move that has put staff of the different services in a situation where they have to confront each other for the privilege of working in a substandard building. 

"You are all encouraged to bring signs of the type that role up to voice your grievances. However, if they're attached to wooden holders being brought through the gates, that might be a problem. It's our right to exercise free speech."

  Free speech at the UN is much in dispute. Recently the supervisor of UN Media Accreditation Stephane Dujarric contacted Inner City Press "urgently" about a single tweet, saying he was giving Inner City Press a chance. A chance for what?

  The tweet concerned how high officials of the UN are selected, and its relation to the veto powers in the Security Council (including for selecting the Secretary General) of those who won World War II. Could this topic be taboo?

  The UN press corps, too, is being primed for a move back to the Secretariat Building on May 10. Why it was delayed was never sufficiently explained. The Free UN Coalition for Access asked for a written explanation but not was given. 

  Rather the reply involved a non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' office on March 18 by the Department of Public Information, which rifled through papers and took photographs, later leaked to BuzzFeed.com, including of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf.

  The president of the old UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, was present and took photographs; when Inner City Press wrote about that, she issued from her CBSNews.com e-mail account a legal threat to "cease and desist." Free speech indeed. We will cover the protest(s). Watch this site.

UN Admits Defects in Fire Escape of Albano Building, Inspector on Way, Cafeterias Out

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 20 – The UN admits that at its rented Albano Building on 46 Street, a combination of ongoing vibration from demolition next door and “defective conditions” resulted in UN staff being banned from the fire tower stair last week.

  As Inner City Press exclusively reported yesterday based on complaints to it be UN staff, that would violate New York City laws. The UN on Wednesday afternoon told Inner City Press, “a building inspector from the City will visit the site accordingly.”

  As whistleblowers told Inner City Press, “on Friday, February 15 vibrations from the demolition of a building next to the Albano were so bad that they were told that the emergency stairs on that side would not be used for any purpose. 

"UN staff were made to keep working on the building on Friday. And even after the three day weekend, on Tuesday February 19, they were told that that stairway should only be used in case of a 'serious emergency.'”

   Inner City Press published that account on February 19, and at the noon briefing on February 20 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about it. He said he would look into it; his office Wednesday afternoon provided the following:

Subject: Your question on the Albano building
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:03 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On 13 February the United Nations Facilities Management Service (FMS) and the Albano building management and owner, REIT, instructed structural engineer URS to inspect the fire tower stair landing inside the building. This followed reports of falling concrete from the underside edge on the 4th floor that appears to have occurred during demolition activities in an adjacent building.

All landings were examined by REIT and URS, and any defective conditions found, such as concrete patches which could become loose, were addressed by REIT maintenance staff. No other safety concerns were noted. At this point in time, the stairway is safe and open for use.

In light of the tenant concerns, REIT will inspect the stairway on a weekly basis going forward, and if any changed conditions are noted, REIT will contact URS for re-inspection and appropriate action.

Vibrations from the demolition and construction activity in the adjacent building are continually being monitored. The vibration data for the day of the incident were sent to URS for review and were found to be within acceptable parameters. It is noted that REIT will undertake a project to renovate the building façade planning to start in spring and be completed this year. This project will include renovation of the stairway.

The demolition contractor performing the work in the adjacent building has also agreed to provide documentation on the safety of their ongoing operation to REIT.

It is also noted that the United Nations Albano Building staff representative placed a complaint with the New York City 311 Office. A building inspector from the City will visit the site accordingly.

 Watch this site.

Footnote: in other working conditions news, not only has the UN closed its Coffee Shop under the General Assembly, long before the GA building closes down for renovation.

 Now the cafeterias in both UNICEF and UNDC in the DC-1 building will close tomorrow “Thursday 21 February 2013 and will reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Friday 15 March 2013. The Main Cafeteria at the Secretariat Building will remain open to provide food service to staff” -- but only from 8:30 to 3 pm, much shorter hours than before the UN was “fixed.” 

 What is happening to the UN? And how it treats its staff and those who work here? Watch this site.

Amid Vibration of UN Building, Emergency Exits Were Blocked, Staff Kept Working

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 19 – How seriously does the UN take the safety of its staff, for example those working in the rented Albano Building half a block from the UN compound in Manhattan? Not very.

UN staff tell Inner City Press that on Friday, February 15 vibrations from the demolition of a building next to the Albano were so bad that they were told that the emergency stairs on that side would not be used for any purpose -- including an emergency.

  Anywhere else in New York, this would mean sending the workers home, vacating the building. The law requires a secondary means of egress in case of fire or other emergency.

  But UN staff were made to keep working on the building on Friday. And even after the three day weekend, on Tuesday February 19, they were told that that stairway should only be used in case of a “serious emergency.” 

  The vibrations, staff tell Inner City Press, also exclusively, continue. And it does not appear that the UN informed the New York City Buildings Department.

  The claim the UN makes is that its premises, including the floors it rented not only in Albano but also the so-called Innovation  Luggage Building on Second Avenue and 42Street, for example, are international territory not subject to New York City or US laws. But what about safety?

  And what about the UN preaching about workers rights and conditions of labor all over the world?

  In one of a number of other recent stories about UN staff and safety, Inner City Press in writing about a slip and fall in the UN cafeteria with shorter and shorter hours wrote about the lack of X-Ray facilities in the UN after Hurricane Sandy. The UN wrote back to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on X rays
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 3:31 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

We can confirm that the UN's x-ray machine was seriously damaged in Hurricane Sandy. It will not be replaced.

Like all medical services around the World, the UN Medical Services Division has been progressively seeking to reduce the use of x-rays in situations where the medical literature indicates there is no requirement for them. This will also minimise the exposure of staff to ionizing radiation associated with x-ray imaging. X-ray use has now reduced so much that there is no longer a need for a full-time x-ray service in the UN building. The small number of x-rays that are still needed are now sourced from external providers.

   But nevertheless when a woman slipped on a negligently wet floor, she was taken to UN Medical Service - without any X-Ray. Watch this site.

UN Swing Space Blazes in Earth Hour, Fake Recycling Typifies Ban's UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- While the lights were turned out in the empty United Nations Secretariat building for “Earth Hour” on the night of March 26, office and entrance lights were blazing in the nearby buildings where the UN's work is actually done these days.

During its multi-year Capital Master Plan renovation, the UN has leased office space a block away on 42nd Street and Second Avenue, dubbed the “Luggage Building” or “Above the Liquor Store” for two of the ground floor co-tenants, the Albano Building on 46th Street between First and Second Avenues and elsewhere.

Between 9 and 9:30 pm on March 26, high Earth Hour while even New York's Times Square was largely dimmed, the Albano Building was lit up as on any other night. More visibly, out on a much traveled corner of 42nd Street, the UN's Luggage Building had many of its lights on.

The same was true at the UN's “FF Building” on 45th Street, and at 1, 2 and 3 UN Plaza on 44th Street, headquarters to, among others, UNICEF and the UN Development Program.

This is by no means the only way in which the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has failed to follow through on the Ban's loudly stated environmental claims, UN staff tells Inner City Press often on condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation.

Earlier this month after being approached by numerous whistleblowers, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for a response to staff complaints that while the garbage in the UN's Luggage Building is separated for recycling, eventually it is all mixed back together and not recycled.

From the UN's own transcript of March 18, 2011 (for what the UN did not transcribe, click here for video) --

Inner City Press: this may seem like a small thing, but the, the several UN staff members that work in what is called the Luggage Building, or whatever it is now being called on 42nd and Second have said that they have concluded after speaking to the Green Focal Point, etcetera, that there is no recycling in the building; that they put the recycling, that they are asked by the UN to put them in separate blue containers and that ultimately everything is put together and dumped. And they have said that they have raised this and have been told that the UN can’t do anything about it. I wonder, I mean, am not expecting you may be to respond from the podium, but they are pretty, they see it as sort of hypocrisy, and I just wonder, maybe, may you or whoever responds to these things can find out if that is the case and if so why it is acceptable?

Spokesperson: Well, let me look into that. I think it is in everybody’s interest to ensure that the recycling is available. Yeah.

Inner City Press: [inaudible] sort of making it appear that it was [inaudible].

Spokesperson Nesirky: As I said, as I said, I would need to look into it to find out what is behind this, if anything, and secondly, the main principle here is that recycling is obviously in everybody’s interest. Right, other questions? then I’ll come back to you, Matthew.

Inner City Press: Okay.

But more than a week later, Nesirky has yet to provide any response or information. The same stonewalling has been applied to higher profile issues like Ban's envoy to Libya Abdul Ilah Al Khatib being allowed to violate longstanding UN rules and the UN Charter by receiving pay from Jordan's government while ostensibly serving the UN.

A fish rots from the head: and then doesn't get recycled, in today's UN. Watch this site.

At UN on Bed Bugs, Spin Supersedes Solutions, After 1 Year, North Lawn Next?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- With bed bugs having been found and then confirmed in the UN's Capital Master Plan office in its headquarters building on 42nd Street, as first reported by Inner City Press on October 25, two days later the UN issued a statement trying to minimize the problem.

Spin, it seems, takes precedence at the UN over solutions.

After Inner City Press' exclusive October 25 report, at the October 26 UN noon briefing it asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky what the UN was doing. Later that afternoon Nesirky's office read a short statement over the UN's “squawk box” system.

Inner City Press request to be e-mailed a copy of Nesirky's responses to its questions itself went unresponded to.

On October 27, Inner City Press asked Nesirky what had happened after the UN found bed bugs in its 46th Street Albano Building in September 2009, another outbreak exclusively reported by Inner City Press.

Nesirky first said that had been “clover mites,” then acknowledged that characterization applied to a test done in May 2010, not the September 2009 incident Inner City Press was asking about.

After the October 27 noon briefing, the UN issued the following written statement:

In September 2009, a bed bug sniffing dog confirmed infestation on most floors of the Albano building. The whole building was fumigated on 19 September 2009 and repeated 2 weeks later. As is standard practice, 6 months later on 6 May 2010 the dog returned and indicated the presence of bed bugs. However, the dog is not able to distinguish between alive and dead bed bugs. As a precautionary measure the whole building was fumigated the weekend of 8, 9 May 2010. On 10 May 2010 a staff member reported the presence of a bed bug in the office. The contractor examined the bug and identified it to be a “clover mite”, which is not harmful to building, furniture, or humans. Since the fumigation in September and October last year, one staff member advised of a suspected bed bug bite, but the expert advised this was from some other insect. In conclusion there has been no confirmed bed bug activity in the Albano building since the fumigations last year.

Since that time, as reported recently in the media, bed bug infestations have been found in many public and commercial buildings throughout New York City indicating a worsening problem. On 15 October 2010, bed bugs have also been found in furniture which came from the 19th and 20th floors of the Secretariat Building and on 22 October 2010 in furniture in the 1B area of the Library Building. This furniture has been moved to a part of the building not occupied by staff to facilitate fumigation. Two important factors are noted, firstly that the dogs are not able to distinguish between bed bugs that are alive and active or dead and secondly that no staff or building occupants have reported being bitten. We continue to follow the expert advice of our exterminator specialist making further tests with the bed bug sniffing dog to more fully assess and manage the problem.

New York, 27 Oct. 10

At UN, Bed Bugs Move to Capital Master Plan Office, Raising Price for Press Returns

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- Bed bug infestation of the UN's Albano Building “swing space” on 46th Street was exposed more than a year ago by Inner City Press. An impromptu Town Hall meeting was called, and UN officials assured the staff that everything possible would be done to address the bed bug problem.

On October 25 sources told Inner City Press that, in fact, the bed bug problem has spread, now to the UN's own Capital Master Plan which is in charge of fixing up the UN's building. Inner City Press went to ask CMP spokesman Werner Schmidt to confirm or deny the presence of bed bugs in CMP.

“Over the weekend a bed bug sniffing dog checked our office and found [bed bugs] in our conference rooms,” Schmidt to his credit immediately acknowledged.

He said “the conference room chairs were taken away”and that FMS (the Facilities Management Service) is now in charge.

Back in May Inner City Press reported that a rift had emerged among senior UN officials about inaction on the bedbug infestation. In a memo leaked to Inner City Press by a whistleblower, Under Secretary General Shaaban Shaaban on May 11 wrote of CMP chief Michael Adlerstein that "In my meeting with Mr. Adlerstein five weeks ago, I never agreed that the Albano staff will be stacked there... So, in the stacking proposal you sent to Mr. Nambiar on 4 May 2010... I read in the appendix twice that 'based on initial consultations with DGACM, agreement has been made to retain the use of the Albano Building,' which does not reflect my discussion with Mr. Adlerstein."

Now bed bugs have been found in Adlerstein's own CMP Office.



Also back in May, Inner City Press reported that "the memo reveals that Shaaban has been told that his staff, of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, may not as promised be allowed to return to their offices in UN headquarters.

"The UN press corps has been told this as well. Their spots on the third and fourth floor, it now appears, may be given for another use. This would leave the press corp in the "whistleblower free zone" above the Library, where all conversations can be heard...The effect would be to drive smaller and more independent press out of the UN, even as the UN gets less and less press coverage, and fewer and fewer reporters attend the UN noon briefing."

Five months later, the UN press corps has now been told that the plan is, even if they return to the third and fourth floor, they will for the first time be charged rent.

They say this UN administration's attempt to disclipline or even drive out the independent press continues. Watch this space.

Leaked UN Memo Shows Shaaban Protest of Bedbugs and No Right to Return by Adlerstein

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/cmp1shaaban051710.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- A rift has emerged among senior UN officials about inaction on the bedbug infestation and the "right to return" to UN Headquarters once it is renovated. In a memo leaked to Inner City Press by a whistleblower, Under Secretary General Shaaban Shaaban on May 11 told USG Angela Kane that his staff won't long stay in the "uninhabitable" Albano Building.

The memo reveals that Shaaban has been told that his staff, of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, may not as promised be allowed to return to their offices in UN headquarters.

The UN press corps has been told this as well. Their spots on the third and fourth floor, it now appears, may be given for another use. This would leave the press corp in the "whistleblower free zone" above the Library, where all conversations can be heard. Complaints have been made, but thus far with as little effect of the UN's fumigation on the bed bugs.

The press has been given until the end of May to argue against losing the spots they had for fifty years, and against the imposition of rent, which is again being threatened.

The effect would be to drive smaller and more independent press out of the UN, even as the UN gets less and less press coverage, and fewer and fewer reporters attend the UN noon briefing.

At the noon briefing of May 12, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press Press: It’s come to my attention, Inner City Press has received a copy of an intra-UN e-mail indicating that in the Albano Building swing space, that up to 90 per cent of the building is infected by bed bugs; that this problem that began earlier during the move there has not been fixed and has in fact gotten worse. I’m wondering: what steps is the UN taking? Why is it that, months after they were first discovered, the bed bugs remain in the UN swing space and what steps are being taken to protect the people that work there?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let me find out about that. Clearly, if there are any concerns about staff health or safety they need to be taken very seriously and looked into. So, let me find out.

The next day, Nesirky's office replied

Subject: your question on bedbugs in the Albano building
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:02 PM
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Six months after the fumigation of the whole Albano building, as is standard practice, the bug sniffing dog returned to examine the building on 6 May. The dog found evidence of bugs on a number of floors. However, the dog is not able to distinguish between alive and dead bugs that may remain from the previous infestation. As a precautionary measure the whole building was fumigated again on the weekend of 8-9 May.

This Monday 10 May a staff member reported a bug found in their office. This was examined in the lab and found not to be a bedbug, further analysis to determine what the bug is continues. Preliminary advice indicates that the insect found is a clover mite which does not bite or sting.

We note that since the fumigation in November last year one staff member reported a suspicious bite but this turned out not to be from a bedbug.

We continue to monitor the situation very closely and urge any staff member who experience suspicious insect bites to seek medical confirmation whether a bedbug was the cause and to advise us, and to advise us if any bugs are found in the building and we will investigate. For the moment though there have been no more confirmed cases of active bedbugs in the Albano building since the fumigation in November 2009.

Shaaban's memo, a copy of which Inner City Press is putting online here, complains of the failure to deal with the bedbugs on which Inner City Press first reported, on problems with the elevators and heating and air conditioning in the Albano Building.

"Each one of these issues represents a serious lapse on the part of the organization's responsibility," Shaaban wrote, "but all three together border on a situation making the building uninhabitable."

He continued, "In my meeting with Mr. Adlerstein five weeks ago, I never agreed that the Albano staff will be stacked there... So, in the stacking proposal you sent to Mr. Nambiar on 4 May 2010... I read in the appendix twice that 'based on initial consultations with DGACM, agreement has been made to retain the use of the Albano Building,' which does not reflect my discussion with Mr. Adlerstein."

Angela Kane is organizing a congratulatory cocktail reception for Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein. One images that the bedbugs and disputed right to return will be raised there, and at a press conference with Adlerstein scheduled for May 20. Watch this site.

Footnote: Shaaban himself is the subject a damning UN Dispute Tribunal ruling, that his behavior in denying promotion to an underlying was so outrageous as to militatate for him personally paying damages of $20,000. Ban Ki-moon has filed what some call a knee-jerk appeal. Now what?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cmp1shaaban051710.html

At UN, Staff Complain to Ban of Asbestos, Freezing Swing Space, No WiFi

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1swingsmcc010510.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- With Secretary General Ban Ki-moon having moved out of UN Headquarters' 38th floor over to the roof of the building called a temporary "Wal-Mart," problems have arising with staff unions and the UN's other "swing space."

While the New York Staff Union has complained about asbestos work slated for January 8 on floor on which people are still working, the UN's other unions have written to Mr. Ban to complain about his non-implementation of continuing contracts. See SMCC letter to Mr. Ban, Ms. Migiro, Mr. Nambiar, Ms. Kane, Mr. Kim and Ms. Pollard, obtained by Inner City Press and put online here.

Meanwhile, UN staff working in the Albano Building swing space on 46th Street have received a critical memo from Under Secretary General Shaaban Shaaban. Complaints from those working in Albano have ranged from freezing temperatures to broiling heat.

Shaaban Shaaban, citing Michael Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan, essentially blames the staff members for these conditions. He accuses them of leaving windows open, of using fire stairs to smoke, and with fiddling with radiators. If you were freezing, what would you do? Inner City Press obtained Shaaban Shaaban's memo and puts it online here.

Inner City Press ventured again Tuesday to the new North Lawn building, in search of answers not provided in what's left in Headquarters. There is still no wireless internet in the new building. Somehow it seems that this could and should all have been planned better. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1swingsmcc010510.html