At
UN, Dark Talk
of Hot Desks,
“Ban Ki-moon's
Sweatshop,"
Staff Allege
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 3 --
With the UN of
Ban Ki-moon
having
effectively
broken its
Staff Union,
now things
take a turn
toward the
surreal, or
toward the
“sweatshop,”
sources tell
Inner City
Press.
When
the 38 story
UN Secretariat
building was
renovated,
many floors
were
left with the
“open plan” in
which staff
members no
longer had
walls or
privacy.
Instead there
are so-called
“focus booths”
the
size of
closets in
which one
could make a
phone call.
(On
the press
floor, the UN
said it would
maintain UN
landline
telephones
in the booths,
as requested
by Inner City
Press and now
the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access, to
allow direct
dialing of UN
Peacekeeping
missions like
the one in
Mali where
nine
peacekeepers
from Niger
were
killed today.
But there are
no phones, the
old
UN
Correspondents
Association
never followed
through,
maintaining a
large mostly
unused
room while
media left
without
offices have
been given the
focus
booths.)
But
upstairs it is
crazier. Now
the proposal
is for “hot
desks.” As
described to
Inner City
Press by staff
members, it
involves a
“first
come, first
served” system
for desk
space. If a
staff member
is not
among the
earliest, he
or she might
be left with
no desk to
work
from.
He
or she is also
an issue
raised. As one
staff member
put it, she as
a
woman does not
necessarily
want to be
dealt out at
random each
day
with “male
staff members
I don't want
to be next to”
a mere two
feet away.
“Why
not just let
us work from
home, if this
is how little
they value
us?”
another
staffer asked,
demanding to
know if Ban
Ki-moon and
“his
insiders” will
also work on
hot desks.
Inner City
Press has, of
course, sought
up the Ban
Administration's
defense of the
"hot desks,"
and offers
these links: http://undocs.org/A/RES/68/247B
and http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/gaab4088.doc.htm
We'll
have more on
this.
Footnote:
on
the controversy
of the new
head of
investments of
the UN Pension
Fund, the
old union
raised the
issue but says
it has been
rebuffed,
despite the
Maryland
litigation
Inner City
Press reported
on last
month.
Retaliation
continues, and
still
the UN has no
Freedom of
Information
Act applying
to it. The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
will
continue to
press on this
issue and
others. Watch
this site.
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