From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 01:09:09 MDT
Tried Googling and Webferreting, no URL I can find but it is a great story.
Terry
Food Fight
When the Food Workers Union stages an impromptu walkout
at the U.N., the diplomats start looting for lunch and booze
By STEWART STOGEL/U.N.
Saturday, May. 03, 2003
Hunger pains can apparently turn even the
most upstanding diplomat into a looter. At
noon on Friday, food workers at the U.N.
headquarters walked off their jobs, calling a
wildcat strike. The result: none of the U.N.'s
five restaurants and bars was staffed. The
walkout left thousands of U.N. employees
scrounging for lunch — eventually, the
masses stripped the cafeterias of everything,
including the silverware.
The food workers staged a one-day show of muscle after they learned that
they would not be reimbursed for vacation pay due to a contract shift
that took place in March. For the past 17 years the U.N. has been under
contract to Restaurant Associates Inc. (RA). In March, RA lost the
contract to Aramark Corporation, the largest U.S. food services company.
According to Aramark executives who spoke to TIME, RA informed the food
workers on Friday morning that it would only cover vacation pay that was
issued before May 2nd, the last day of RA's U.N. contract. Any vacation
pay due after May 2nd would need to be paid by Aramark.
But Aramark informed the Union it would only pay for time worked for
their company and nothing previous with RA. Aramark told the union that
whether or not vacation paychecks were to be issued before or after May
2nd the work in question was performed when RA held the U.N. contract.
That was enough to set the food workers walking during the height of
Friday's lunch hour. After that, what ensued was nothing short of
Baghdad style chaos.
Kofi Annan, who had a private lunch previously scheduled with the
members of the Security Council in the Delegates Dining Room, found they
were only served the main course. After that, they were on their own —
no desserts, no cleanup, no coffee for Kofi. And the service was no
better for anyone else at the U.N. But as tensions grew and stomachs
growled, a high-ranking U.N. official boldly ordered that all the
cafeterias open their doors for business even
without staff. The restaurants had been locked shut by security until
about 1:00 pm when the doors flung open.
The decision to make the cafeterias into "no pay zones" spread through
the 40-acre complex like wildfire. Soon, the hungry patrons came
running. "It was chaos, wild, something out of a war scene," said one
Aramark executive who was present. "They took everything, even the
silverware," she said. Another witness from U.N. security said the
cafeteria was "stripped bare." And another told TIME that the cafeteria
raid was "unbelievable, crowds of people just taking everything
in sight; they stripped the place bare." And yet another astonished
witness said that "chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out
the door (unpaid)."
The mob then moved on to the Viennese Café, a popular snack bar in the
U.N.'s conference room facility. It was also stripped bare. The takers
included some well-known diplomats who finished off the raid with free
drinks at the lounge for delegates. When asked how much liquor was
lifted from the U.N. bar, one U.S. diplomat responded: "I stopped
counting the bottles." He then excused himself and headed towards the
men's room.
An Aramark executive estimated the food "removed" from the U.N.'s main
cafeteria at between $7,000 and $9,000 not including the staff
restaurant, the Viennese Café or the Delegate's Bar. The value of the
missing silverware has yet to be estimated.
Come Monday, the workers should be back at their stations. The dispute
has been temporarily resolved with the Union agreeing that the vacation
pay remains RA's responsibility. The Union also wasn't willing to risk
Aramark's only option of replacing all the workers.
"I hope we have large crowds rushing to come to lunch on Monday," an
Aramark executive said. "But this time we expect them to pay for what
they take."
-- Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com > Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com > Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html > Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB * U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program ------------ Member: Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLCB) Mailing List TLCB Web Site: < http://www.tlc-brotherhood.org >[Vietnam veterans, Allies, CIA/NSA, and "steenkeen" contractors are welcome.]
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