By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 31 --
With the UN of
Ban Ki-moon
having
effectively
broken its own
Staff Union,
now food
service
workers inside
the UN face
"lay-off
status" for at
least one
month. Click
here to view
document
obtained by
Inner City
Press.
Aramark had
the contract
for the UN
cafeteria,
Vienna Cafe,
Delegates
Dining Room
and Lounge; it
was extended
through
December 31
while being
put out to
bid.
Then food
workers in the
UN exclusively
told Inner
City Press
that Aramark
has lost the
contract and Culinart,
a smaller
firm, had been
awarded it.
(Inner City
Press first
reported this on October 28, here.)
The food
workers told
Inner City
Press there
have been no
communications
to them about
their future
employment
after December
31.
Now on that
day Inner City
Press has obtained
and is exclusively
publishing
this communication
from Michael
Pitkewicz of
Culinart to
the company's
UN employees:
"The
United Nations
has informed
us that the
Delegates
Dining Room
will be closed
from December
31, 2014 to
January 30,
2015. During
that time you
will be on
lay-off status.
The Management
Team will
contact you to
advise when
you should
report back to
work."
Happy
holidays.
Meanwhile
inside the UN,
Ban has
effectively
broken the UN
Staff Union.
Late October
saw the
submission to
management of
a Joint
Statement by
the former and
current
members of the
Arbitration
Committee,
which restated
the facts of
their
proceedings
regarding the
December 2013
Union
elections and
their
subsequent
rulings. But
no response
from Ban's UN,
in the run up
to his
controlled
"Global Town
Hall" staff
meeting in
early January.
Upstairs
things
have taken 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 in
November.
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
-- while on December
30 offering
self-congratulation,
here,
before the return
of the Censor
in Chief.
We'll have
more on this.)
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.
, 
