Tour Guides Stage A Walkout at United Nations
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
UNITED NATIONS — One of the only U.N.’s independent revenue sources suffered a major blow yesterday as 22 tour guides called in sick as part of a labor dispute. The U.N. guided tours attract visitors from around the world, but instead of walking through the building in groups accompanied by attractive young guides wearing the official U.N. uniform, some of those tourists were left fuming outside the First Avenue landmark yesterday,
Only five of the 52 men and women hired as guides are full-time U.N. staffers, while the rest earn $18 an hour but receive no medical insurance or vacation time, according to staff union officials. The U.N.’s Web site puts the cost of a tour at $13 for an adult visitor, with 400,000 visitors a year. Guided tours netted $7,366,000 in 2006–07.
“Tour Guides are very important connecting the United Nations and the outside world,” Secretary-General Ban told The New York Sun yesterday. Despite the walkout, he added, he was told that “those tourists who had made reservations had been able to tour the United Nations.”
