Sunday Times 2
Feature – ‘Sri Lankans’ who hold sway in UN staff unions
If the United Nations in Geneva goes on strike – as threatened by staff unions – that proposed work-stoppage will be virtually led by Ian Richards, whose family hails from Moratuwa.Richards is president of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), described as one of the most powerful staff unions in the UN system.
As UN staffers in Geneva threaten a strike, protesting a proposed salary cut of over 7.5 percent, a token two-hour “work stoppage” last month forced the Human Rights Council to suspend its meeting. But there is more to come, warned Richards, pointing out that a strike would only ever be the last resort.
Union leader Ian Richards
With a Sri Lankan mother and a British father, Richards symbolises the concept of globalisation advocated by the United Nations.
He was educated in Switzerland (primary and early secondary) and the rest in the UK (secondary, bachelors and masters in economics) and graduated from the University at Warwick where he intermingled with scores of Sri Lankans.
Asked about his family history, Richards told the Sunday Times: “I lived in Sri Lanka for a year, working for an organisation called the Nest. It works on community and mental health issues. It was a great way to discover the country and my family”.
“My mother grew up in Kurunegala and Amparai. Our family is from Moratuwa, home of the alternately named Tyronne Fernando/De Soysa stadium. (Although the fact that Tyronne Fernando married a De Soysa should surely have put this debate to rest.) Family luminaries include Matthew Peiris (though sufficiently removed) and Puran Appu’s brother (the one who betrayed him). However, everyone else is good and decent, and my cousin recently restored the record by being the first Sri Lankan to climb Everest,” he said.
Asked how best to describe his heritage, Richards said half-jokingly: “ A Sri Lankan when it comes to enjoying life, a Briton when it comes to queuing and somewhere between the two when it comes to being on time.”Meanwhile another full-fledged Sri Lankan, Chandana Mutucumarana, has earned the distinction of being the first Sri Lankan to be elected to the executive board of the United Nations Headquarters Staff Union in New York representing over 6000 staff members.
Mutucumarana is Rapporteur of the UN Staff Union Staff Representative, Unit 30 in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), and is a former President of the Royal College East Coast Association.He told the Sunday Times he joined the UN two decades ago and worked for the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management– which provides high quality meeting and documentation services to all Member States in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, and wherever international conferences and meetings are held by the United Nations.
He said the Department also helps interpret at meetings, translate documents into all six official UN languages, edit, revise and process texts and data, and advise on meeting procedures and protocol, to name just a few.