Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

UN's Closure of Day Care Center Raises Questions of Hypocrisy, Gender Entity End Game

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- As at the UN talks on the “Gender Entity” resolution are convened today, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon heads to the G-20 meeting to speak of the importance of women to the MDGs, the hypocrisy of closing the UN day care center on only two days notice to parents has not gone unnoticed.

Earlier this week Inner City Press exclusively reported on the June 18 closure, which working parents using the center were informed of only on June 16.

Inner City Press is now informed that the UN Department of Management run by Angela Kane has been asked about decision, how it was taken and even if it can be re-considered.

The hypocrisy is just too obvious. The Department of Management's Office for Human Resources Management has as a stated goal “to support the development and implementation of policies and programmes concerning staff welfare and employee assistance..." and "(f) to develop and implement policies on work/life issues to assist staff in balancing professional and personal lives" (ST/SGB/2004/8).

A Secretary-General's report on “Improvement of the status of women in the United Nations system” (A/63/364), for example, identified the existence of child care facilities as one of the most effective means of facilitating work/life balance in the workplace, and notes the small percentage of these facilities as a “notable gap” in the United Nations.

What was already a gap was made a gapping hole by a unilateral decision by an out of touch bureaucracy which didn't even purport to consult with those impacted.

Angela Kane claps while DSG Migiro holds the scizzors, ASG Pollard on side

On June 24, Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson:

Inner City Press: Some staff members have raised concern that the UN day care that they’ve run here for 38 years, at least that’s the number that’s put on it, is now being discontinued on two days’ notice to the affected staff members. And they seem to think this is inconsistent with everything that’s been said about work-life balance and making it easier for women to work in the UN. What’s the reasoning, particularly for the limited notice given to the staff members using that day care center?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: What I can say, I can’t really address the question of notice. That’s something that we could seek further guidance on. But what I can say is that it’s clearly linked to the renovation that’s going on in this building and the lack of appropriate space for children to be looked after.

Inner City Press: These staff members have pointed to an unused, or virtually unused space in [building] DC-1, and said that it seems from the notice that was put on i-Seek that the only concern is that they’d have to have licenses and somehow be up to New York City standards if they held it off premises. Does this imply that for 38 years it was somehow sub-par? I guess they view there was no dialogue given and there seems to be space. I’m just wondering, I don’t know, you didn’t make a decision to close it, but I’m wondering…

Spokesperson Nesirky: That’s for sure, that’s for sure.

Question: Who did, actually? Who did make the decision?

Spokesperson: Let’s find out.

While as of this writing some 22 hours after the question was posed Mr. Nesirky had not named the decision making official, Inner City Press has been informed that the Department of Management, run by Angela Kane and overseeing “power broker” Michael Adlerstein's Capital Master Plan, has been asked about decision, how it was taken and even if it can be re-considered.

Footnote: Ironically, at the same time as this reporting, Mr. Adlerstein and Ms. Kane sent threatening messages to Inner City Press related to the Capital Master Plan. So it goes at the UN. Watch this site.

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UN Closes Day Care on Two Day Notice, Offers Gender Entity Post to Rwandan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- As the UN talks about establishing a new "Gender Entity," offering the top post first to Chile's Michelle Bachelet and now a Rwandan minister, Inner City Press is told, it has this month unceremoniously eliminated the after school day care it for years had offered to staff.

"It's hypocrisy," says one impacted working mother. "They talk about work life balance and advancing women, then cut this program on only two days' notice."

The day care, in the UN Secretariat building, was discontinued on June 18. The impacted parent only learned of it on June 16, too late to put up a fight. The rationale is that with the UN's renovation, the day care could only continue out in the "real" New York west of 1st Avenue, where permits would be required.

UN's Ban and Ms. Bachelet, closure of UN day care not shown

On June 22 the UN posted this notice on its intranet:

After-school recreation and study programme for United Nations children Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010, New York | Author: Department of Management

Because the UN Secretariat building is currently a construction zone, it is not possible to house the After-school Recreation and Study Programme on the premises due to lack of available space. Therefore, we regret to announce, ST/IC/2010/17, that we are not in a position to offer the Programme as of the end of the 2009/2010 school year, and we regret any inconvenience that this will cause to parents.

If we were to move the Programme to a rented building, we would be subject to New York City laws and code compliance. In reality, this means that the children participating in the Programme would have to be housed preferably on the ground floor, but not above the third floor. The child care space would also have to meet a number of other code requirements including certain exit criteria and access to play areas. Such a space is not available at this time. In addition, the operator of this service would have to be fully licensed and certified.

Several readers found the UN's admission that has been below code compliance, and less safe than certified, strange. They point out, for example, that in the UN's DC-1 building on 44th Street and 1st Avenue there is a barely used room next to the third floor cafeteria. "They just don't think this is important," the working mother said. "And yet they're naming a new Gender Entity." She laughed, but bitterly. Watch this site.

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At UN, Adlerstein as "Slumlord," Forced Relocation in the End, Ceiling Collapse Confirmed, Asbestos Denied but not Tested

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 28, updated -- Alongside the sealing off of the UN Conference Building, a new ceiling collapse in the General Assembly basement and relentlessly upbeat storytelling by the UN about happy staffers and even reporters in their new swing space, as in many refugee situations it all comes down to force.

The chief of the UN Capital Master Plan Michael Adlerstein has written:

"In the event that you do not pack your materials as requested, we will arrange for your material to be packed and relocated to the Alcoa space during the weekend of 29-31 May 2010. In either event, telephone and computer connections will be relocated ... this weekend, and the locks will be changed at your old office in the Secretariat on Friday night. On Tuesday morning June 1, you will not be allowed to enter your former offices."

Unlike anywhere else in New York or most real estate situation, there is no possibility of appeal or any outside review. "It's like a threat from a slumlord," one reader of the letter told Inner City Press.

Adlerstein's letter reflects that Information Technology staff are, in fact, remaining in the Secretariat high rise. It is unclear when they will be moved to the basement of the North Lawn building.

Downstairs in the basement, workers at UN Television report they will be moved upstairs "to where Verbatim used to be" -- that is, the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management staff who were moved to the bedbug ridden Albano Building swing space will not be coming back.

Moving, like it or not: garbage cart, Adlerstein as locksmith not shown

A series of CMP related questions have been sent this morning to the spokespeople for the Secretary General and for the CMP, including about yet another ceiling collapse in the General Assembly lobby, the reported charging of admission to see a film inside the UN, frozen and missing video monitors and the future of the US Post Office inside the UN. Watch this site.

Update of 1 p.m. -- from the UN, on one of eight questions:

Subject: response to your first question from CMP
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
Date: Fri, May 28, 2010 at 12:09 PM
To: Inner City Press

1. There is another ceiling collapse in front of the gift shop, in the public area of the UN.? Has the UN done testing to confirm that there is not asbestos being released in the vicinity of visitors, including children?? When were the tests done, and will the UN make them available?

Response: Approximately 10 sf of plaster have fallen down near the Gift Shop. The plaster in that area had to be replaced a few times before due to a recurring leakage problem. This plaster does not contain asbestos.

To be continued.

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

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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