The
Albano
Building is on
46th Street
and was rented
by the UN to
relocate
workers
including
translators
while the
headquarters
was renovated,
for some $2
billion.
But
now that the
renovation of
the
Secretariat is
finished, the
workers aren't
being allowed
to return.
Their space,
they say, is
being given to
big wigs from
ECLAC and the
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations'
Police Adviser
unit, which
were never
there before.
The
translators
are confined
to a decrepit
former factory
called
uninhabitable
by DGACM chief
Shaaban Shaaban
in a 2010 memo
to Angela
Kane, who
still a UN
official.
Kane
is now UN
negotiator on
chemical
weapons in
Syria. It
occurred to
some: how can
Kane find
sarin in Syria
if she
couldn't or
wouldn't find
the roaches
and bed
bugs in the
Albano
Building?
Inner
City Press at
the time exclusively
wrote
about the bed
bugs, and
the leaked
memo
subsequently
quoted by
staff, and
today covers
not only Kane
but Shaaban's
replacements.
Many staff
interviewed by
Inner City
Press on May
Day blamed
current
Assistant
Secretary
General Franz
Baumann, and
wondered what
the incoming
new chief of
DGACM will do.
[See update
below.]
"Where is Ban
Ki-moon?" more
than one
staffer asked.
Where indeed.
It
being May Day,
the idea of
worker action
beyond
marching
arose. But it
was explained
to Inner City
Press that
while the
interpreters
could "shut
the UN down,"
translators
are in a more
precarious
position, with
the prospect
of outsourcing
ever-more
present. The
Group of 77
and China push
for
multilingualism.
But if they
didn't?
The
march was from
1:30 to 2:30
pm and
garnered quite
a bit of UN
Security.
Inner City
Press is
informed it
was almost
"outlawed." At
Wednesday's
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
about the
planned march,
on which it
had already
published a
story.
Ban's
spokesperson
said peaceful
protest would
be allowed.
And so it was,
with UN
Security even
working to
protect the
march from
limousines
speeding out
of the garage.
Some
UN
communications
"professionals"
walked right
on by, for
example DPKO's
Herve Ladsous'
spokesperson
Kieran Dwyer,
last seen
blocking
questions from
Inner City
Press about
the 126 rapes
in Minova by
the Congolese
Army, Ladsous'
partners. Click here for April 25 video.
But
several
Security
Council
diplomats
Inner City
Press spoke
with later on
Wednesday were
unaware of the
protest,
because of the
timing. (One
Permanent
Representative
of a Permanent
Five member
was a
refreshing
exception.)
"They
should go it
during GA
week," another
suggested,
then specified
they shouldn't
be quoted
advising UN
workers how to
get
management's
attention.
It is
member states
who "own" the
UN
Secretariat,
and who alone
could hold it
accountable.
Appealing for
the UN
Secretariat to
practice what
it preaches,
on freedom of
the press or
workers'
rights, does
not seem to
work. For now.
Watch this
site.
Update:
Franz Baumann
has written in,
that "peoples'
scapegoating
me
defies fact
and logic. Space
standards,
moving
schedules and
the like are
not determined
by substantive
Departments.
If they were,
and if I had a
say in the
matter, I
would push for
the
arrangements
in place at
the UN Office
at Vienna and
the UN Office
on Drugs and
Crime (where I
served for
seven
years).
All staff
there,
regardless of
category or
level, have
individual
offices;
workstations
do not
exist.
Alas,
standards at
Headquarters
are different.
"I would be
delighted if
all DGACM
staff could be
accommodated
in the Secretariat
building, and
there are
DGACM staff
who still
remember that
I was
instrumental,
in 1998, in
creating
homogeneous
language
floors with
brand new
furniture
(Chinese on
23rd, Arabic
on 17th,
French on
14th, Spanish
on 13th,
English on
12th etc.),
thus bringing
together for
the first and
only time
those who work
together.
What was good
then would be
good today, in
my view.
Sadly, various
pressures -
certainly not
from
substantive
Departments
since for
these,
contented and
motivated
staff are
hugely
important -
have forced
different
standards on
the
Organization
here in New
York."
, 
