By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, March
9 -- As the UN
talks about
workers'
rights and
collegiality,
inside the Glass
House things
can be quite
different. On
July 31, 2014,
Inner City
Press reported
how the head
of the UN
Department of
General
Assembly and Conference
Management Tegegnework
Gettu calling
female critics
"emotional,"
here.
Now
on March 9,
multiple
sources tell
Inner City
Press that
Gettu told
complaining
staff "I am
warning you,"
cutting them
off while
saying We are
all equal,
including me."
Really? Leaked
audio
exclusively
put online
by Inner City
Press here.
What
will Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon do?
Under his
management,
the UN Staff Union
in New York
has been broken.
But is this
rant
appropriate?
Previously,
Gettu said, if
we all fart
together, it
doesn't smell.
Really?
Back
on July 31
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
announced he
is shifting
Catherine
Pollard from
the Office of
Human
Resources
Management
over to become
Assistant
Secretary-General
for General
Assembly and
Conference
Management
(DGACM),
replacing
Franz Baumann
of Germany.
As
Inner City
Press
previously
reported,
Pollard had
declared
herself the
poster child
of Ban's
“mobility”
policy, to
only hold the
same post --
or was it duty
station? --
for five
years.
No matter
that, for
example,
Robert Serry
has said on
television
he's been in
his post six
years. Pollard
has made a
lateral move,
and Baumann's
next move is
not yet clear.
What
does DGACM do?
As a sample,
Inner City
Press has
already
exclusively
received a
number of
complaints
about a
meeting held
by DGACM chief
Tegegnework
Gettu, also on
July 31.
According to
sources, Gettu
used the
meeting to
tell staff how
well he is
doing, how
objective he
is, that he
has no
personal
agenda. (Click
here for
previously
Inner City
Press report.)
But
when he opened
the floor, the
first staff
member who
dared make a
suggestion --
that verbatim
is now nearly
identical to
translation --
was cut off
and told that
his was only a
personal
opinion.
A
female staffer
who made a
criticism was
told by Gettu
to not be
“emotional.”
Eventually
Gettu was
telling the
assembled
staff that the
UN “is good”
and “if you
don't like it,
walk away.”
In
fact, it was
in DGACM that
the staff
member elected
vice president
of the Staff
Union in
December was
terminated --
Gettu says he
didn't
re-apply for a
job so he
clearly didn't
need one --
and it was in
DGACM that staff
members were
subjected to
bed bugs,
among other
things, in the
Albano
Building.
On
July 31, the
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press
that Gettu
told DGACM
staff that
they may
remain in the
Albano
Building on
46th
Street until
2017 when, he
says, the UN
may have a “DC5”
building,
proposed to be
built on the
Robert Moses
playground
south of 42nd
Street. Click
here for
Inner City
Press story.
There
are many
hardworking
staff in
DGACM, and
even some in
management may
mean well.
But the type
of
self-serving
speechifying
at staff
described to
Inner City
Press by
sources on
July 31 is
indicative of
the same UN
which, for
example among
the press, evicted
the News
Agency of
Nigeria from
its work area
claiming a
lack of space
while giving a
large room to
its favored
UN Censorship
Alliance
(UNCA) --
which now says
it will leave
the room empty
and locked
from August 1
to August 19.
We and the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
will have more
on this. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
