In Wake of UN Tour Guides' Sick-Out, Working Group Set Up With Union Leaders Excluded

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 -- The public face of the UN on Thursday went on strike. A decision to call in sick was reached by UN tour guides at a meeting Wednesday night. After waiting for the sick-out calls to be made, and reporting on the reactions of those who came for morning tours only to be turned away, Inner City Press at Thursday's noon briefing asked for "the Secretariat's response to the complaints raised by the Guided Tour Unit." UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe read from a prepared answer that a "meeting had been scheduled this afternoon to discuss these issues and Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Public Information Kiyo Akasaka had planned to join."

            Tours of UN headquarters are a money-maker. Budget documents show that in 2006-07, "services to visitors" at headquarters generated gross revenue over $ 8 million, with $736,600 of that being net revenue, or profit.

            In a hallway interview granted Thursday afternoon, Mr. Akasaka graceously told Inner City Press he was heading to meet with the tour guides, that the UN Staff Union should not come as this was the first meeting, and that he hoped all the issues could be resolved. The planned meeting was closed-door, to be held in the basement of the UN General Assembly lobby.

Kiyo Akasaka at the microphone in UN basement, tour guides not shown

            Afterwards, Inner City Press obtained a copy of Mr. Akasaka's post-meeting email to his staff, forward to tour guides:

"As announced during my visit to the Guided Tours Unit this afternoon, I am pleased to confirm that establishment of a Working Group to look into the concerns of the part-time Tour Guides. I have asked Eric Falt, the newly-appointed Director of the Outreach Division, to convene this Working Group at the earliest possible time -- hopefully next Monday or Tuesday. The Working Group is expected to include:

-Netta Avedon, OHRM; Lena Dissin, DM; Marry Ferreira and Mampela Mpela, staff representatives of DPI; Elizabeth Baldwin-Penn and Isabelle Broyer, Public Relations section, Louis German, DPI; and up to three representatives of the part-time Tour Guides."

            The internal response was that this proposed panel is far too management dominated. The Staff Union has been excluded, and Thursday afternoon Department of Management chief Alicia Barcena wrote to the head of the Union that there is no need for the Joint Negotiating Committee to deal with the issues underlying the strike. A list of demands has been generated, including

"application and improvement of sick leave regulations; full time contracts for full time work and improvement of part-time contracts; To address unfair labor practices of the UN management such as hiring practices and decisions related to promotions and firing) as well as contracts, especially in light of the closure of UNHQ according to the Capital Master Plan."

            In fact, the job action took place on the day the Capital Master Plan to vacate and fix the UN Headquarters Building was approved by the UN's budget committee. Also on Thursday, those in attendance at a meeting of the UN Staff Council were unanimous in their support of the tour guides. Union president Stephen Kisambira recounted a meeting with Kiyo Akasaka "some months ago," after which nothing, he said, was done.

    First vice president Emad Hassanin spoke of a pregnant tour guide who was told she wouldn't be paid if she did come give tours. She did, and suffered a miscarriage, Hassanin said. He pointed out how tour guides do not have access to the UN's internal justice system, which he called broken, but also cannot sue in U.S. or New York courts. Some also spoke of the language teachers, who are also in a gray zone of employment law at the UN. Their problem is that a strike of language classes is not as visible to the public. Previously, the Staff Union has organized a boycott in support of the workers in the Headquarters' cafeteria, and has raised the issues of the day laborers of UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the  Congo and Liberia, who perform important UN work without rights or recognition.

            Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to a question on Thursday called the tour guides

"very important [in] connecting the United Nations and the outside world -- they have been playing an important role... Under-Secretary-General Kiyo Akasaka is going to discuss this matter -- what their complaints or issues are in  this matter.  I will get back to you through [the] Spokesperson."

            We'll be waiting...

 * * *

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

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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