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UN's Barcena Reportedly "Declares War on
Staff," Pro - Management Slate Predicted
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: Labor Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
May 19 -- In what has been described as a UN staff rebellion,
the Staff Union on May 16 served a two-page
complaint on the Ban Ki-moon
administration, specifically criticizing his outgoing and incoming
chiefs of
Management. What was Management's response? According to the Union's
Second
Vice President Richard Dellar, outgoing chief Alicia Barcena called him
on
Monday and said, "This is a declaration of war."
In
fairness, Inner City Press offered Ms. Barcena the opportunity for over
eight
hours to deny the quote or explain it. She did neither. Request for an
update
on her accountability and freedom of information proposals likewise
went
unanswered. The interpretations of the reported "war" comment include
her perhaps working on a pro-management slate for the Union, just as
she came
to a meeting one time and spoke, she said, as a staff member.
Her
successor, Angela Kane, was asked to comment on the critical letter, to
state
her position on no-bid contracts and on a Freedom of Information policy
for the
UN, and to come and briefing the press corps. She did not respond to
the first
three of these requests. If and when a briefing is held, we'll report
on all
her answers.
Mr. Ban and, behind flowers, Angela Kane,
under oil painting, cartoon
not shown
Inner
City Press was asked, by one who took part in Kane's
selection, to "write positively" about her. If no answers are given,
this becomes more difficult. On that front all we can say for now is
that her
getting the top Management post is being spun as the triumph of
"mobility," the UN term for staffers moving from one job to another,
especially leaving headquarters for the field. To be deputy chief of a
UN
mission, even in Eritrea, is not the mobility that is accessible to
most staff.
But Ms. Kane moved around, from the library through Conference Services
and the
Eritrea mission, to Political Affairs and now this. It's time to do a
briefing,
and lay out a plan for the future.
For
now we note that the Staff Union on Monday added to its web site a cartoon, of
Ban Ki-moon as a music conductor with headphones on. The caption is
"i-Ban
for non-listeners." There seems little point for now to seek comment on
the cartoon,
if neither Ms. Barcena nor Ms. Kane deigned to comment on the more
detailed letter,
and other questions aren't be answered. And so it goes, in the House of
Diplomacy.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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