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Workers’ alternative

Jorge Mancillas, PSI Health and Municipal Service Officer, organised the workshop

Municipal workers’ unions can help achieve the UN millennium development goals because quality public services are the best sustainable alternative to poverty. These services should be immune to privatisation, the municipal services workshop, chaired by Greg Mclean - ASU Assistant National Secretary, heard on 26 September.
Delegates learned about Norway’s ‘model municipality’ experiment, which is based on a tripartite collaboration of politicians, administration and the unions. The key to this work is to develop good quality services based on ideas from the municipal workers themselves.
The experiment is a pro-active way of changing the balance in the municipalities by giving the employees more influence. They know what the needs of the inhabitants are, and they know better than anyone how to change services for the better.
This is in line with PSI’s policy that all citizens should have access to personalised public welfare services of high quality, and that workers have valuable experience and knowledge.
Norwegian union NUMGE sees the model municipality experiment as an anti-privatisation strategy. It doesn’t just oppose outsourcing, privatisation and commercialisation, but offers an alternative strategy.
PSI is developing campaign materials to strengthen trade union capacity to promote municipal workers’ rights and all citizens’ access to quality public services.