Staff at WHO HQ stop work in protest at conditions

Between 400 and 700 staff members at the World Health Organization stopped work for an hour last week, in what the protestors saw as a demonstration about conditions, and in what the director general of the body, Dr Lee Jong-wook, called a “strike.”

Dr Lee said it was “unprecedented in the history of WHO,” and he threatened strikers with loss of pay and “other disciplinary measures which could involve dismissal from WHO.”

He also warned the strikers they could be replaced by transferring staff from …