UN staff votes no confidence in Annan management

UN staff votes no confidence in Annan management Thu Mar 9, 2006 7:11 PM ET UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Staff Union voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to express no confidence in U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top managers after Annan announced plans to overhaul the U.N. bureaucracy. A motion "to express a statement of no confidence in the secretary-general and his senior management team" was opposed by just two of the more than 500 U.N. employees attending a closed-door emergency meeting of the staff group, said Staff Union official Guy Candusso. But a U.N. official said the vote at U.N. headquarters did not reflect the views of the far greater number of employees working in the field, who were pleased Annan's overhaul plan would improve their working conditions and career prospects. Annan explained the plan in a videoconference on Thursday with staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Haiti and Liberia, the world body's five biggest peacekeeping missions, the official said.

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