In
UN as Cote d'Ivoire, Electoral Flaws Alleged, Incumbent Vows
to Stay
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 14 -- The UN solicits money to assist elections around
the world, although they are sometimes disputed like recently in Cote
d'Ivoire. But when a UN Staff Union election was held at UN
Headquarters in New York from June 7 to 9, just as Ban Ki-moon sought
re-appointment to a second five year term as Secretary General, an
election better than Cote d'Ivoire's was expected.
In
the run up to
the three days of electronic polling, questions were raised ranging
from the stated lack of a list of voters, to the inability to vote of
over 200 staff members without a UN e-mail address. The outside
contractor running the polling, Election Services Corporation, was
chosen, it was said, outside of the UN's procurement rules, and would
gain access to personal information of UN staff without their
consent.
Ban Ki-moon
and
his management officials have been at odds with the union incumbents,
who
often questioned
the treatment and safety of staff. On June 13,
Inner City Press asked
Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: the incumbents had said that there were people given two
ballots, retirees were allowed to vote, there were a number of
irregularities. They were also said they were told they shouldn’t
use their office to do campaigning. I wanted to know, is that the
case, and are there any results to be announced? It seems strange
that an election held right inside the UN would have these,
supposedly, irregularities. Are there any acknowledged
irregularities or what?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
That’s really for the Union itself to comment on, and not
for us.
An
election held
right inside the UN, and the Secretary General's spokesman says its
for the contestants to comment on irregularities, not the UN?
Still,
later on
June 13 Inner City Press visited the Staff Union office on 48th
Street. There the term limited president Stephen Kisambira sat
surrounded by records of old elections. He said that some retirees
had been allowed to vote, and that some staff had received more than
one code number to vote with.
Among
the documents
Inner City Press obtained were the results, as
well as a complaint
that
Election Services Corporation initially refused to provide the
results to dues paying UN Staff Union members who now complain that
the numbers in the results don't add up.
UN's Ban & Kane over left
shoulder, Nambiar over right, mobility memo
not shown
On
the other hand,
there was a complaint
against an incumbent running for re-election,
that he used the Union office for campaigning. He says that's the
only computer he has, and notes that Ban Ki-moon himself is using his
UN office for campaigning.
Kisambira
said he
would leave only when an uncontested winner was declared, and joked
about the precedent of Laurent Gbagbo, finally attacked by the UN
Mission in Cote d'Ivoire under Ban ally Choi Young-jin and the French
Force Licorne. We'll see.
Footnote: on complaints to Ban Ki-moon about his
administration's de-unionization of broadcast engineering posts, there
has still been no response to letters to Ban from the AFL-CIO of
New York and then NY Congresspeople including Anthony Weiner. On
June 10 Inner City Press asked
Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City Press: "there
is this letter from a number of New York City or New York area
Congress people, again about this case, the matter of the
de-unionization of these broadcast engineer jobs. Now —and there
was a letter from AFL-CIO that’s several months old now — there
was a 24 May letter by Congresspersons [Carolyn] Maloney, [Gary]
Ackerman and a slew of others, including Anthony Weiner. But I
wonder… to the Secretary-General, stating that this is an
anti-union move and asking him to reconsider. And I wonder, has the
letter been received and what’s the response, including to the
AFL-CIO letter some months ago?"
Four
days later,
the UN has yet to even confirm receipt of the letter. Watch this
site.
* * *
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.
