I didn’t realize this but apparently even the U.N. has a union. Specifically the U.N. Staff Union. Yahoo News is reporting that the UN staff are preparing to cast a historic no-confidence vote against Nobel Prize winner and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

UN staff are expected to make an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after a series of scandals tainted his term in charge of the world body. The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its kind in the almost 60-year history of the United Nations, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing support for Annan and senior UN management. Annan has been in the line of fire over a series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid program that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars.

Okay, but this kind of news will eventually be found all over the mainstream press. Why are we reporting it? Well apparently the oil for food scandal wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Annan had pardoned the UN’s top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment.

The union had requested a formal probe into the official, Dileep Nair, after employees accused him of harassing staff and violating UN rules on the hiring and promotion of workers.

Dileep Nair is an official from Singapore who denies any wrongdoing of course. The U.N. workers aren’t buying it though, and haven’t forgotten previous things they were upset about.

Staffers who asked not to be named, afraid that speaking out could damage their future in the United Nations, said the Nair decision was an example of corruption by Annan and his senior staff. They noted that Riza [Iqbal Riza, Annan’s chief o staff], UN undersecretary general for information Shashi Tharoor [see previous post] and other top officials had served directly under Annan at least since 1994, when he was head of UN peacekeeping operations.

At the time, the United Nations was widely criticized for failing to stop the Rwanda genocide that left 800,000 people dead, even though UN peacekeepers were on the ground — a catastrophe for which Annan has publicly apologized.