United States

Gwen Moore wrote to president Jim Yong Kim to critique the World Bank Group and its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, over its policies and lending practices that favour water privatisation.

Today, the Supreme Court announced that it had reached a 4-4 tie in the Friedrichs case that challenged the legality of allowing unions to charge an agency or fair share fee to non-members. The tie upholds a lower court decision that recognizes the constitutionality of the agency fee system, but does not prevent similar cases from making their way through the federal courts in the coming years.

They also urge the Secretary to press the Honduran government to provide immediate, effective, and carefully consulted protection to Mexican environmentalist and journalist Gustavo Castro Soto and other witnesses in the case.

Students in Chicago were so disgusted by the school lunches provided by the private company Aramark that they decided to do something about it.

After a unanimous vote to privatise school breakfasts and lunches, the School Board of Roanoke School in Virginia, USA, promised to closely watch how the private company Sodexo performs.

Fifty students held a two-hour occupation of the central administration offices at the University of California, Berkeley on 3 December to demand living wages and benefits for workers employed by private contractors on campus. Police arrested 22 of the students who were charged with misdemeanor offenses.

At Nashua in the state of New Hampshire, USA, in September 2015, the Board of Education voted 7-1 to end its contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the Nashua custodial workers (janitors). The board said they are looking to hire a private cleaning company instead.

The bus drivers, maintenance and food service workers – and all the other hard-working men and women of AFSMCE Florida Local 1184 who make America’s fourth-largest school system happen every day – have approved a new three-year contract with the Miami-Dade Public School system.