| PSI in Utilities |
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 Utility services such as water, waste, gas and electricity
are fundamental building blocks of society. Without access to
water, no society can develop. Electricity allows our children to
study, our factories to produce. These utilities are far too
essential to be left solely to unpredictable market forces. It is
the responsibility of government to ensure equitable
delivery.
PSI members are committed to delivering
reliable, accessible and equitable utility services in their
communities. We help our member unions deal with the
ideologically-motivated privatisation and deregulation agendas that are
devastating the world's utilities. Workers and their
unions must be involved in all proposals to improve these
services.
If you would like to contribute to the PSI Utilities programme,
please contact david.boys@world-psi.org
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Latest News |
Electric Utilities Sector Supplement now available
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a not-for-profit organisation, has developed solid guidelines which companies should use in drafting their annual reports. Company annual reports are being increasingly scrutinised by a wide range of actors to help ensure that companies are responsible actors. They can also be used by unions to strengthen the union position on a range of issues – outsourcing, health and safety, training, etc. PSI worked with GRI or more than two years to develop GRI’s Electric Utilities Sector Supplement. We urge you to recommend this supplement to management and to examine especially the social indicators to ensure that workers' views are considered in the reporting.
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Urgent request: Colombia - fundamental human right to water
Our friends in Colombia have collected over 2 million signatures from their fellow citizens in support of a constitutional amendment supporting the fundamental human right to water. Ten days ago the Colombian House of Representatives pushed forward a law which directly contradicts the water referendum and accelerates water privatisation in Colombia. We need to deliver a strong statement to the Colombian government that the world is watching these developments and standing in solidarity with our Colombian brothers and sisters. We need your support!
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World Water Day
  22 March is World Water Day, a day to celebrate this marvel of nature that sustains all life on earth.
However, World Water Day cannot be a celebration as long as lack of water or contaminated water kills thousands of people every day. People have a right to water in sufficient quantities to ensure their lives and to protect their dignity. Governments have responsibilities to ensure this right. Water is a fundamental human right.
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Water Operator Partnerships: an alternative to privatisation or business as usual
PSI has long advocated public-public partnerships between public water utilities and unions/NGOs. As a result, the concept of water operator partnerships (WOPs) has now entered into the language of the international water family. How can we ensure that unions continue to create the conditions for public-public partnerships, especially when faced with private water companies and their lobbying groups whose profit motive is extremely powerful?
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Unions fight corruption, build strong public utilities
A union delegation travelled to Huancayo, Peru, where they achieved a public-public partnership between water utilities.
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Water Remunicipalisation Tracker - check it out!
As more and more communities insist on returning water and wastewater services to public management through remunicipalisation, water multinationals are forced to pull out of services in Latin America, the United States, Africa and Europe. Increased tariffs and a failure to deliver promised improvements have left water multinationals facing increasing opposition.
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Water, Women, Workers: sources of life
The campaign message "Women and trade unions call for safe, affordable and efficient water for all" is accompanied by a focus for 2008 on climate change and sustainable development. Please inform us of any activities you are organising for this campaign, which runs from 8 to 22 March 2008.
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Oversight group would be part of deprivatization
STOCKTON - A city panel Thursday endorsed a plan for the transfer of Stockton's water and sewer utilities from private to municipal control, promising in the transition's oversight to involve activists who sued the city to undo its privatization deal.
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French public water operators nearly 60% cheaper than private, says consumers' association
For the second consecutive year, a French consumer group has published research that shows a huge gap in the cost of private and public water.
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Unions agree on priorities for energy and water policy
Energy and Water Unions from Latin America met in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 28-30 October and agreed on a list of priority actions for the region.
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| New thinking |
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We urgently need to rethink privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation. These strategies are all failing. The links below will take you to a wealth of research which demonstrates this. Corporate control is failing to provide more investment capital and better governance of public utilities. The costs of these failures are being imposed
directly on utility workers. As jobs are cut, health and safety protections are reduced, and training is minimised, all in the name of profits and ‘competition’. And it is our communities which suffer in the long run.
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8 - 22 March 2008
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