When principled beliefs  don't match reality

I have to admit that I believe in the usefulness of elected staff representatives and trade unions. They are part of the necessary checks and balances of every society. No doubt about it: being an employee I feel that I  need a staff representatives.

Learn from the ancestors

Marx and other 19th century thinkers not only described the exploitation of the working class but also identified to a segment of society they called the "labour aristocracy". Members of this group were relatively better paid, more secure, better treated at work and more able to control the organisation of their work.  Lenin went further, he denounced the very legitimate goal of protecting and advancing the interests of employees, as "trade unionism" and, thus, being hostile to revolutionary change.  In recent decades when globalization created both mass unemployment and job miracles simultaniously, trade unions have been accused of acting in the interest of 'insiders' who have jobs at the expense of 'outsiders' without jobs.

The dilemma of a staff council in a humanitarian organization

Contrary to an often heard saying, charity never starts at home. In particular the staff representatives of a humanitarian organisation need to balance staff interests with the interests of those people  the  organization has been tasked to protect and assist. Moreover, a body that represents staff in more than 120 countries cannot afford to privelege the interests of employees in one country over the interests of colleagues in others. And that is my problem with the current staff council: it is spearheading a narrow minded trade unionist approach that serves  no one but staff based in Geneva.

When form is as unacceptable as content

 It is embarassing (at least) to observe how a group of colleagues is advancing its own self-interest posing as human rights campaigners and revolutionaries - some kind of Martin Luther of modern days: "On this I take my stand. I can do no other." Moral impositioning is in particular not called for given that the main protagonists have taken very controversial stands on other issues.

 

 

 

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