Elections currently underway for UN participant representatives to the UN Staff Pension Committee are turning out to be a toxic stew of interference by the UN administration/Pension Board, discrimination against some candidates, manipulative behavior by a candidate, and combined forces that appear determined to disregard transparency and democracy.
Indeed, democratic principles and values have been under assault on a global scale during Covid-19, and now elements in the UN appear to be jumping on board this dangerous trend.
Interference
In a bold move to interfere in the elections, the UN administration is funding the elections and tried and failed to block Pension Fund staff from running.
Discrimination
The polling officers thwarted this attempt to rig the elections by deciding to respect Fund rules instead, but the residue remains.
They haven’t lifted the prohibition in their rules of campaigning against candidates who are Fund staff using Fund facilities or computers, while other candidates are allowed to use official facilities and computers.
Membership in the Fund is mandatory for all staff members.
Running for election to the Pension Board is an official activity; therefore, no candidate can legally be denied the use of official facilities or computers for campaign purposes.
And, there is no such restriction on other candidates' use of official facilities, computers, mailing lists or broadcasts for campaigning purposes, which makes this rule discriminatory.
Manipulation
Then there’s the outgoing president of the UN Staff Union New York. She pushed just before the end of her term to move the New York union from the CCISUA staff union federation to UNISERV, where in a quid pro quo, she was immediately appointed vice-president of the federation.
She also received UNISERV’s unconditional support for her candidacy to the UN Staff Pension Committee, despite having no pension experience.
Every tenet of democracy appears to have been jettisoned in this gambit to move the New York union to UNISERV.
Reportedly, when three separate votes failed to achieve a two-thirds majority, the Staff Council chair decided, contrary to the statutes, to overturn the decision and count abstentions as votes in favor.
In what appears to be the latest ruse, an Emergency Staff Union New York was just called for tomorrow, 22 June, aimed at changing union statutes to allow current officers whose terms have expired, including the president, to run in upcoming elections!
*See response below to the call for an Emergency Staff Union meeting from Yogesh Sakhardande, candidate for leadership of the 47th Staff Council.
Non-transparency
In a shameful display of non-transparency and undemocratic tactics, the administrator of a Facebook group called UN Pictures, also the UNISERV president, has posted a photo of the slate of candidates that includes the new UNISERV VP as the group’s photo, while refusing to allow campaign posts by other candidates.
The UN polling officers have cried foul about this seeming endorsement of a slate on behalf of one of the UN unions, instead of clarifying that it’s the personal preference of the group administrator. They have asked, to no avail, that social media groups allow all candidates to post on their sites.
Democracy under attack
Whither democracy in the UN, the international organization that touts democracy around the world?
In the simplest terms “democracy” means rule by the people, the ability of people to have a say in decisions and hold decision-makers to account.
According to the Democracy Index 2020, “70 per cent of countries reported a drop in their democracy score in 2020 compared to 2019.
Paramount among democratic principles and values that came under attack during Covid 19 were civil liberties, freedom of expression, accountability, and women’s equality.
Despite doing more than any other international organization to promote democracy around the world, the UN itself is far from being a bastion of democracy.
Consider the undemocratic and unrepresentative Security Council; or the closed-door white smoke process by which the UN Secretary-General, the ninth man in the UN’s 75 year history, recently re-elected to a second term; or the British colonial civil service that was the model for the UN Secretariat and its rigid staff hierarchy.
Now the UN appears to be getting on board with the global assault on democracy.
Undemocratic Pension Board
Now, consider the undemocratic Pension Board with its imbalance of seats and voting rights, and its sustained attempts to resist reforms while intimidating and muzzling whistleblowers among the current UN participant representatives.
Collusion
Finally, consider the UNSU NY president supporting the UN administration/Pension Board’s efforts by denying the UN participant representatives access to the Staff Union broadcast system to keep their constituents informed of pension activities, and then jockeying to unseat them in the upcoming elections.
Protect our Fund by voting for representatives who’ll fight for all our interests
The UN Pension Fund as a defined benefit system is a dying breed. It cannot be taken for granted. Ignorance, self-interest, raw ambition and autocracy are active threats to our Fund.
These elections are crucial. Active UN staff, who are eligible to vote in this election must recognize the real risks of losing the gains of recent years in transparency, integrity, and efficiency and vote for those who are experienced, committed and with a proven track record of fighting for all our interests!
VOTE FOR IAN, MARY, IBRAHIMA, ABOLADE, EGOR, AND SOLOMON!
*"MORE SHAMELESS ATTEMPTS BY UNION LEADERSHIP TO RIG NY UNSU ELECTIONS BY CHANGING TERM LIMITS MIDSTREAM
Dear Colleague,
Vote NO. This is not a resolution adopted by the Council but by individuals attempting to retain power.
By now you must have read a Staff Union Broadcast calling you to an Emergency General Meeting tomorrow 22nd June 2021.
Staff Representatives have been hearing from colleagues and as one long-serving staff member wrote “This is the most outrageous case of election rigging I have ever seen.”
Rigging of elections is a crime in any democracy, it violates UN Staff Rules and our UNSU Statutes and Regulations, both of which espouse democratic principles.
Indeed it appears that current leadership is attempting to destroy our Union on its way out of office, by delaying elections and the start of the 47th Council.
This is currently disenfranchising you, hundreds if not thousands of staff in unrepresented Units whose newly elected representatives cannot be lawfully seated at the Council until the election is complete.
Not only is this move clearly unethical but additionally the UNSU regulations appear to have been violated.
Nowhere in the world are the rules of an election changed in the middle of the election.
i. Once the Polling Officers announce the election – the rules cannot be changed.
ii. Any new rules cannot be retroactive or “immediate” because in this case immediate is in the middle of an election for which rules were already distributed and most of representatives already chosen.
This shameful act violates Article 5.11 of the Regulations which states that
i. The Emergency General Meeting must be in the “interests of the Union” and that means the staff members and not to further the interests of individuals - in this case the First and Second Vice Presidents of the Union and possibly the President herself.
ii. We have not received any proof that 300 members of the Union have requested this emergency meeting.
iii. There was no decision for this Emergency Meeting by the Council
iv. The fact that the Chairperson is “out of the office” is also interesting since he is apparently convening this meeting.
The position paper put forward by Union President while drawing attention to the inadequacies of our Statutes failed to inform you of the following.
From 2017 to 2019 the current First Vice President led a group of Staff Representatives in an effort to draft amendments to the Statutes and regulations spending hundreds of hours on this task.
At the beginning of the 46th Council Staff Representatives met to “finalize” the document, however due to the restrictions that would be placed on the current leadership the revised statutes were never brought to the staff-at-large.
This amendment could have been made during the last two years.
Over the last several months the leadership of the UNSU/NY has put the Council and this Union through the mill and left the staff in a precarious position – all in the interest of retaining power.
April – unlawfully changing a vote so as to change affiliation of the Union from CCISUA to join UNISERV - [in Arbitration]
Gerrymandering the Apportionment – A referendum was later held but without informing staff about the details
Unlawfully attempting to change the information session last week to a General Meeting – it appears this was the reason.
Protect yourself, decry this shameful and corrupt act and save our Union from being destroyed in order for this leadership to stay in power.
Rigging of elections is a crime in any jurisdiction and these actions will be pursued to the fullest extent.
Signed,
Yogesh Sakhardande
Candidate for Leadership of the 47th Council"
No comments:
Post a Comment