FAO strike widens as professional staff walk-out

FAO staff demonstrating this week, photo: Ficsas

Rome – Irate FAO professional staff staged a walk-out protest Thursday in solidarity with general service staff who were on strike for a fourth day against "autocratic" management at the UN agency , union officials said.

 UGSS general service staff decided to extend for another day their agitation initially planned for Monday to Wednesday while professional staff were walking off the job from 12:30 to 1.30 pm.

 The call for the walk-out was issued after assistant director general Denis Aitken was quoted saying professional staff lunching in solidarity with the strikers would be considered joining the stoppage, implying they too might have their salaries docked.

 The general service clerical and administrative staff called three days of strikes starting Monday in protest at what they term the “autocratic” attitude of management. The prospect of a further walk-out by professional staff Thursday suggests that industrial relations at the troubled UN agency are deteriorating further despite the get-tough tactics of the British hatchet man assigned to crush the unrest by Brazilian Director General Jose Graziano da Silva.

“ … Mr. Aitken has said that if we have lunch in front of Building A with our GS colleagues, it will be considered as if we were joining the strike,” an AP in FAO professional association official told members, “so we must refrain from inviting our members to do so.