By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 2 --
Even at the UN
it's the
holiday
season, but
that hasn't
stopped
officials at
the world body
from
announcing and
imposing
layoffs.
Monday
morning as
Inner City
Press entered
to cover the
first day of France's
Security
Council
presidency,
click here for
that, it
was informed
that the UN
had chosen
this day to
send letters
to Security
personnel,
technically
hired for the
Capital Master
Plan
renovation,
that they
stand to be
laid off.
The
timing is more
than a little
strange,
coming soon
after the
Security
Council
approved a plan by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon to
send 200
security
personnel to
Libya, to
protect the UN
mission there.
Inner City
Press was the
first to
report on the
approval and
will have more
on this.
For
now we note
this: a UN
Security
person working
in New York on
a G4 visa, if
they took the
post to
protect the UN
Mission in
Libya, their
family would
have to leave
the US in
thirty days.
This is also
the UN's
hammer over
whisteblowers.
Meanwhile,
inside
the UN itself,
for weeks
those working
in the
Delegates'
Dining Room
have been
asking why
their place of
work, run by
the contractor
Aramark, will
close on
December and
not re-open.
Aramark had
been reducing
services,
cutting the
hours of the
staff
cafeteria for
example, with
the UN saying
nothing.
When
Inner City
Press has
asked about
the enforced
layoffs by
Aramark of
workers in the
UN, the UN has
shifted from
saying it
cares about
the principles
preached by
the
International
Labor
Organization
to saying this
is entirely up
to the
contractor --
a defense used
then rejected
by apparel
makers like
Levis, the Gap
and Nikes. But
not the UN.
On
November 29,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
top two
spokespeople:
"Please
confirm
or deny that
Aramark will
cease mid-day
service (and
cut back on
workers) in
the Delegates
Dining Room
from December
20 on, and
explain the
UN's role in
reduction of
service and
employment by
Aramark, and
when their
contract with
the UN will
expire."
So far
no answer,
including to
other
questions
including
these two, on
labor
relations and
UMOJA/
waste at the
UN:
"With
the
UN Staff Union
election
upcoming and
dispute
ranging from
term limits to
how voters are
grouped and
accredited,
please
describe the
role of the UN
and OHRM,
including in
light of a
statement by
ASG Pollard
that 'OHRM had
been in
contact with
Mr. Auda,
Chairman of
the Polling
Officers,
continually
between 7
October when
the second
list of staff
(as vetted by
EOs was
transmitted to
him) and 28
October, 2013;
and
"With
regard
to UMOJA,
please respond
to the
(whistleblowers')
critique
that the
project now
uses 'Nova to
assign
expenses
retroactively,
for many
years; it
costs in fact
much more than
$200,000 $
only to
capture the
data."
Watch
this
site.
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