As US Gets Down With UN, of Opera and Rohingya, Fact Check by the Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- In the weeks before the US elections, the US Mission to the UN in fine multilateral style held separate 22nd floor receptions for the UN General Assembly's Second, Third and Fifth Committees, this last on Thursday night.

  After photos with and a short speech by US Ambassador for Management and Reform Joe Torsella -- called by some Fifth (Budget) Committee denizens "Ambassador Tweetela" for his social media penchants -- there was opera, sung from the top of the stairs over the Mission's river-view ballroom.

  Earlier in the week, Torsella highlighted to the Press the US Mission's reminder to the Secretariat, of promises Ban Ki-moon made in December. Days later, Torsella offered a Twitter hat-tip to the Heritage Foundation for a budgetary catch.

   Thursday night Torsella told Inner City Press that he hadn't had full control this year unlike last of the food or caterer, but of the opera he joked about "Brindisi" and "I got a whole lot of nothing."

  The food included sushi, and Under Secretary General for Management Yukio Takasu was there, as well as Torsella's Japanese counterpart Jun Yamazaki, previously the UN's Controller.

  Also in attendance was UN Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann. The US Mission likes his for cost cutting; some UN staff, particularly but not only in Publishing, are less impressed.

  Recently after Inner City Press was invited to the UN's Third sub-basement to disprove Baumann's statement that all the printing equipment worked, the UN started some form of investigation of how this fact-check happened. On this, the US should be on the side of transparency and audit, if only by the media.

  Though the Fifth Committee is largely not their purview, at least under the December crunch, many Permanent Representatives were there, ranging from Jamaica and Suriname through Algeria, Montenegro and new Security Council members Luxembourg and Rwanda.

 

At the Second Committee reception, the US' Elizabeth Cousens' speech joked about the many acronym's the committee and wider UN use. Suriname chairs the Third (Human Rights) Committee, which heard Friday from the Special Rapporteurs on, among others, Religious Freedom and Myanmar.

  In Washington, Victoria Nuland expressed US concern about the plight of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar's North Rakhine State. Would it have an impact? Watch this site.

At UN, Attacks on Labor Extend to Elevator Operators, Security, Tradespeople

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 13 -- Beyond the anti labor moves the UN has deployed on its UN TV and other engineers, now the elevator operators at the UN are under fire.

In the week since Inner City Press wrote about moves under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to stop collecting dues for the UN Staff Union, and to more slowly pay lower level staff, the UN hasn't answered but other workers have stepped forward.

The elevator operators face cut backs; the Trades and Crafts staff are threatened with downgrade to General Service. UN Security officers see this impacting them, although senior UN official Franz Baumann denies or distances himself from it.

But the pattern is unmistakeable: under Ban Ki-moon, the UN is eroding labor and collective bargaining rights. The UN TV and engineers jobs have been advertised, at G-7 posts. And under Ban, payments for injury in the line of duty at the UN in New York have reportedly been decreased by 42%. Will the outside union working on the Capital Master Plan respond?

On Friday the UN Dispute Tribunal shot down the attempt to stop collecting union dues. Click here to see the decision. But still the UN Controller Jun Yamasaki wants to dictate where the funds are deposited.

On March 7, after writing a first round up on Ban's anti labor moves, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for a response:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about a couple of labour issues that seem to have arisen. One is the Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, that represents the UNTV, UN Radio and Conference Services people, put out a press release over the weekend complaining of how they… complaining that their labour rights are being destroyed. I know that the Staff Union here has said that the UN no longer collects dues for it and essentially seems not to recognize it as a union. And the G-level staff have submitted a petition — maybe you could confirm that — to the Secretary-General about changing the ways in which they are paid and saying this violates their rights. What’s… is it… what would you say to those who say they see a trend of kind of anti-labour actions by the Secretary-General and on each…? Can you confirm the receipt of the petition, and will there be a response to complaint of these IBEW workers that they have now made public?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I really don’t agree with the notion that there is some kind of trend here. On the other specific questions you have asked, if I have further details, then I would get back to you.

But no response has been forthcoming. We have to go back some time to a written response from earlier this year, to just one of the issues, from UN official Franz Baumann:

Subject: Re: Three Press questions
From: Franz Baumann [at] un.org
To: Matthew R. Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Dear Matthew, Thanks, as usual, for checking... On the Publishing staff: I can confirm that DGACM has requested OHRM to convert to the General Service (GS) category all Trades and Crafts (TC) category posts and staff in DGACM. This, incidentally, is not at all a downgrading, and our request emphasized that the conversion is to be done in a cost-neutral fashion and that the emoluments of the staff should be what they are now. Converting the TC staff makes them more marketable.

The reason for this request is that technological advances – the replacement of traditional offset printing by digital, high speed photocopiers and much reduced print-runs - obviates the need for licensed tradesmen since digital equipment can be operated by GS category staff. And by considerably fewer. So, when switching from steam to electric trains, what to do with those who have shovelled the coal? A compassionate employer converts them so that they can find useful & satisfying employment.

In reality, the TC category has long been obsolete in the Publishing Section. Of the currently 70 or so TC staff, less than a quarter came with licences. It is worth noting also that the staff at the three other DGACM conference-servicing duty stations, UNOG (Geneva), UNOV (Vienna) and UNON (Nairobi), who work in similar printing facilities, are – and always have been - in the GS category.

While Baumann says he has nothing to do with UN Security staff, the same argument is being made, that outside of New York, UN Security are General Service staff. But under Ban, payments for injury in the line of duty -- taking a bullet, as one argues -- at the UN in New York have reportedly been decreased by 42%.

March 11 at the UN, Department of Safety and Security staff told Inner City Press of fight back at the ISCE, and of more fights to come. Others spoke of solidarity with the elevator operators, and with the Aramark food service workers, also hurt by the Capital Master Plan. But would the Plan be slowed, by the Teamsters and AFL-CIO workers? Watch this site.