Industrial Relationships 101

My office - I'm the one standing in the back

You must know by now that my post has been abolished and that Chief, Human Resources has asked me to clear my desk by the end of the year. The fact that I have a signed contract until the end of August 2008 did not really matter. Neither did the fact that I only have 15 months left to go before my retirement.

I was told that, in his deep wisdom and compassion, the Secretary General has allowed me to apply for a vacancy in the interpretation section, so if I'm accepted, I'll be an interpreter instead of a translator. Same shit, so I'll be fine... if I'm accepted.

For other firees, things are harder. For some reasons, people come to my office every day to confide and look for advices and reassurance, people I don't even know, but who somehow have heard of my being fired. I cannot give them any advice, but I'm good at listening. Some stories are heartbreaking.

• One of the firees is a single mother of a deeply handicapped adult child who needs to be attended to 24/7; she has less than a year to go before retirement.

• One Chinese interpreter had uprooted his wife and his two boys to come to Montreal. Now he cannot go back to China, because they quit their well-paid jobs years ago and now will have a hard time finding work back home. They will lose their house in Montreal and their second son will not be able to enroll in a good school in China or find work later on, because of China's policy of one child per family.

• In the IT department, the boss hates one of the programmers so he abolished three programmer positions, then re-opened two of the positions and asked the other two to reapply for their jobs.

People are angry, anxious, and paranoid. Rumors are swirling everywhere. The Chief of Legal Bureau has forbidden his staff to answer or advise people who come with questions. The Staff Association has been silent since the beginning of the firing salvo. I sent them this letter and am still waiting for an answer:

To the President of the XXX Staff Association and the members of the Executive Bureau

Dear colleagues,

As you may or may not know, I am one of the "chosen" ones to whom C/HR has recently given a letter informing them that their posts have been abolished and that they are to leave XXX on 31st December 2007. I have spoken to many of my colleagues in the same sad situation and I am therefore emboldened to write to you on behalf of our group, the first batch of staff members to be disposed of.

You are obviously aware of the current rotten atmosphere throughout the Organization, the low morale and the rampant gossips and rumors. Every single day, I hear of another friend or colleague who has to go through the ordeal of being called to the C/HR office to receive the dreaded letter. People walk around as in trance, not knowing when their turn will come. I hear daily rumors that XXX has a surplus of funds, that chiefs of sections are scrambling around ordering furnitures in order to spend the extra money before the end of the fiscal year and that new posts are being created to accommodate friends and relatives of the Secretary General, the Council President and Council representatives. I hear rumors that the Staff Association is preparing a strike, a General Assembly, this and that activity, but these are all rumors. The staff is deliberately being left in the dark and with unreliable, contradictory information, many are afraid to make the wrong move or to take any action at all.

I know that the Staff Association is engaged in talks with the Secretary General and/or the Human Resources Branch. I would humbly request that the Staff Association issue a letter or some kind of announcement to all staff to inform us of your activities and your intentions. It does not have to be definitive and detailed information. Just tell us what you are doing to help those in need of support. At least, such announcement will reassure the staff that they are not being abandoned to deal with their problems separately and individually. I know that the Administration's method is to conquer by division and by threat of retaliation. I would hate to see the Staff Association helping them by keeping silent during this time of uncertainty and misinformation. Where are the transparency and honesty that have been promised to the staff? How can we plan any action to defend our jobs and our livelihood if we have no access to any information until it's too late?

Looking forward to hearing from you very soon,
Sincerely,

Buddhist

Thus ends the lesson on how NOT to treat your staff and/or union members.