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Africa & Arab countries

Africa and Arab countries form one of the four regions in the PSI structure. Our 153 affiliated organisations in some 43 countries represent a membership of around 1.5 million people here. The regional secretariat is based in Lomé, Togo. Contact our regional offices.

Most recent attack on Brazilian workers will reduce salaries and increase accidents

13 September 2018

On August 30 the Brazilian Supreme court voted 7-4 to legitimize last year´s labour reforms that allow for unrestricted outsourcing. Previous Brazilian legislation had limited outsourcing to non-core activities like property services.

Privatization Watch - 05/2018

13 September 2018

Latest issue of #PrivatizationWatch (05/2018) - The Global newsletter on privatization of public services around the world.

PSI calls for release of Tunisian Fishermen arrested by Italian authorities for saving lives on the Mediterranean

05 September 2018

Six Tunisian Fishermen, arrested off the coast of Italy, could face human trafficking charges after rescuing a stranded migrant boat with 14 people on board.

Privatization Watch Newsletter - All issues

05 September 2018

This PSI bulletin provides an overview of global trends in privatization of public services and is part of PSI’s global campaign against privatization.

ICRICT Meeting: 10-Years from the Last Crisis, We Still Need Effective Financial Regulation

04 September 2018

This week, the Independent Commision for the Reform of International Corproate Taxation (ICRICT), of which PSI is a founding member, is meeting in New York to discuss the path forward for global corproate tax reform.

Women's rights beyond the business case: ensuring corporate accountability

01 September 2018

Together with a wide range of organisations under the umbrella of the Feminists for a Binding Treaty coalition, PSI has participated in the production of this briefing that highlights the importance of a binding gender-just international accountability framework for Transnational Corporations (TNCs).

Gender and trade coalition

01 September 2018

PSI endorsed the unity statement and joined the gender and trade coalition, a feminist alliance for trade justice initiated by feminist and progressive activists. The coalition puts forward feminist trade analysis and advocates for equitable trade policy.

VIDEO: Watch the presentations of the International Seminar on Corporate Power

28 August 2018

The event held by PSI, with the support from FES, on August 1 and 2 in Panama City, sought to analyze how transnationals capture democracy, manipulate public opinion and seek to control personal data to be used in accordance with their own private interests.

International Youth Day, 12 August 2018

14 August 2018

The United Nations designated the theme of International Youth Day 2018 as “Safe Spaces for Youth”. The UN explains that “without the existence of safe space, youth may feel intimidated to freely contribute to the community".

PSI holds workshop on Tax Justice in Ghana

09 August 2018

PSI affiliates converged in Ghana, on July 27-28, for a two-day meeting sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) on Tax Justice under the theme “Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and the needed Revenue for Public Services Development”. Before Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya held similar meetings; while a final conference has been scheduled to take place in Ethiopia in September.

Key outcomes from the 2018 Caribbean sub-regional women’s committee (SUBWOC) meeting

06 August 2018
Linda Mienzer, LGBTQI representative from BPSU, Bermuda. Photo: PSI in the Caribbean

Thirty-one women trade union activists, nine of them young workers, representing 15 affiliates, attended the 2018 SUBWOC in Castries, St Lucia, on July 2, under the theme “There can be no social justice without gender justice.”

Unions raise concerns at Bangkok Round of RCEP

03 August 2018

Labour representatives from trade unions from India, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, and Cambodia joined other public interest groups during the 5-day long People's Response to RCEP and Free Trade in Asia Pacific, from 20-24 July, to raise deep concerned on the content and process of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations - which had its 23rd round of negotiations concluded on 27 July after 10 days of closed door talks in Bangkok.

UN Global Compact on Migration Concluded

02 August 2018

Friday 13 July 2018 was a historic day in the United Nations. After one year of preparatory thematic and regional consultations and multi-stakeholder dialogues, and six months of intense inter-governmental negotiations, UN Member States have concluded and agreed on the text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Trade Unions in Transformation

31 July 2018
Photo: Striking dressmakers take a break in diner, ca. 1955 by Kheel Center - CC BY 2.0

With “trade unions in transformation«, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) contributes to shifting the narrative about trade unions. Moving away from the standard depiction of unions as victims of globalization, this project highlights that unions do have agency and power. The stories of successful trade union action told in this brochure demonstrate how labour can and already does shape globalization.

Barbados: Pilot study on gender–based violence in the Public Sector

31 July 2018
Stakeholders' meeting on Barbados pilot study on GBV@Work

PSI’s sub-regional office for the Caribbean, together with its two affiliates in Barbados, have entered into a research partnership with the University of the West Indies to carry out a pilot study which will focus on the health and social services sector.

Badge for International Womens' Day (IWD) 2016

01 March 2016

This badge has been published by Public Services International for International Women's Day, 8 March 2016. It is available in English, French and Spanish.

Action guide for international women's day campaign - 8 March 2016

26 February 2016

In 2015, the World Women's Committee (WOC) decided to make Equal Pay the main theme of its celebration of International Women's Day in 2016. PSI has already achieved a lot on this issue, as is widely recognised. It took the lead in calling on its affiliates, the global union federations, the ILO, governments and women's organisations to defend economic rights. PSI is now internationally recognised as a union that defends women's rights at work and in society in general.

Posters for International Womens' Day (IWD) 2016

26 February 2016

These posters have been published by Public Services International for International Women's Day, 8 March 2016. They are available in English, French and Spanish and in both high- and low-resolutions.

Mistreated: The tax treaties that are depriving the world’s poorest countries of vital revenue

25 February 2016
Mistreated

ActionAid has released a new report that reveals how tax treaties are reducing the tax that some of the world’s poorest countries can collect from multinational companies.

Resolution from AFRECON Young Workers' Seminar

17 February 2016

Resolution presented at the end of the Young Workers' Seminar held during the 12th African and Arab countries Regional Conference (AFRECON)
of Public Services International (PSI) held in Gaborone, Botswana, 22-25 September 2015

Collective bargaining - a policy guide

08 December 2015

How can governments advance the effective recognition of this fundamental right? Which policies and institutions promote collective bargaining and how might they be established?

The Free Fracking Agreement - Proposed TiSA Annex on Energy Related Services

02 December 2015

Public Services International (PSI) and International Forum on Globalisation released the first known analysis of the proposed Annex on Energy Related Services to inform the COP 21 climate summit.

Protecting the Public Interest from Predatory Privatization and Outsourcing: A Call to Action

01 December 2015

Joint statement by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Public services International (PSI) for the meeting discussing the global push for privatization, linking unions' national campaigns to regional and global dynamics taking place in Washington, D.C. on 2-3 December.

Posters: Climate change 2015

23 November 2015
Posters

The 2015 posters on climate change for COP21 are now available for download in English, French and Spanish

Posters: End violence against women 25 November 2015

23 November 2015

These two PSI posters for the International day for the elimination of violence against women on 25 November 2015 are available for download in English, French and Spanish.

Emergency resolution in response to the release of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement text

19 November 2015

In response to the release of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) text the 19th PSI Steering Committee meeting that met in Geneva, Switzerland on 17-18 November adopted the following resolution.

Table of missing tax payments

10 November 2015

Corporations do not always want to pay tax on their profits where they are making their profits. They often engage in a strategy called profit shifting whereby, through artificial subsidiary companies they shift their profits into low or no tax countries and thereby avoid paying taxes where profits are made. Research by the Tax Justice Network reveals the real figures behind missing tax.

Still Broken

09 November 2015

Governments must do more to fix the international corporate tax system
New research shows that the gap between where companies pay tax and where they really do their business is huge. In 2012, US multinationals alone shifted $500–700bn, mostly to countries where these profits are not taxed, or taxed at very low rates. G20 countries themselves are among the biggest losers. The measures recently announced by the OECD leave the fundamentals of a broken tax system intact and do not stop the race to the bottom in corporate taxation. G20 governments must do more and should strongly support further reforms.

Joint statement to the UNCSW60

04 November 2015

Joint statement submitted by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Education International (EI), Public Services International (PSI) and International Transport Federation (ITF), civil society organisations with consultative status at the Economic and Social Council to the upcoming UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW60).

Reports from pension fund meetings, September 2015

28 October 2015
Hands holding coins and two leaves

A number of PSI affiliates are concerned about pension fund investments in privatization, a process that is likely to increase under pressure from the G-20 and the OECD. These two documents describe the on-going work related to investment practices and policies of capitalized pension funds.

58th UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW)

10 March 2014

Priority theme:
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.

Review theme:
Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work (agreed conclusions from the fifty-fifth session).

The 4th International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector

04 March 2014
The 4th International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector

The 4th International Conference on Violence in the Health Sector will take place in Miami, USA, from 22-24 October 2014. The largest and most relevant mondial conference dedicated to work related aggression and violence within the health and social services sector.

Ghana: West African Health Sector Unions Network meeting

11 February 2014
participants

From 28-30 January 2014, PSI affiliates from Burkina, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who form the West African Health Sector Unions Network (WAHSUN) met in Accra, Ghana.

Workshop: Deepening collaboration to promote the delivery of quality health care

11 February 2014
Group activity during WAHSUN workshop

The West African Health Sector Unions’ Network (WAHSUN) in collaboration with the Public Services International (PSI) held a 2-day workshop in the Garki district of Abuja, Nigeria, on 15-16 January 2014.

PSI ad hoc meeting on pensions

03 February 2014

PSI took advantage of the meeting of the ITUC Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC) in Washington, DC 16 ‐ 17 October to convene a few union representatives responsible for pension fund policy in their own countries. This group included AFSCME, AFT, SEIU, CUPE, NUPGE, UNISON (Abvakabo was unable to attend the CWC at the last minute).

Joint ILO-PSI Training and Planning Workshop on Labour Migration

13 December 2013

This event is part of a Joint PSI and ILO ACTRAV project on labour migration in Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia.

Forum Against Corruption in Latin America

09 December 2013

The public often perceives corruption in public services above all as a phenomenon of individual public service employees taking bribes for delivering services or favours to individual citizens. Many citizens of the wealthy and more developed nations believe that corruption is particularly a problem of politicians in poor or developing countries. However, these are only some aspects of corruption, and focussing on them alone obscures the fundamental problem of corruption as a challenge for societies all around the world.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

25 November 2013

PSI is calling on all its affiliate members, men and women, to make a pledge to end violence against women and girls, at each of their workplaces around the globe. Violence against women is an age-old problem – it is time to end it now.

PSI Communicators' Action Network - Greece 4-8 November 2013

05 November 2013

An expert team of affiliate union journalists and communicators from around the world are gathering for the PSI-EPSU Communicators’ Action Network initiative in Athens, Greece from 4-8 November. This is a joint project of PSI and EPSU, together with our affiliate unions, ADEDY, and allies in Greece. Read the stories: www.psi-can-greece.org

World Day for Decent Work 2013

03 October 2013

On 7 October we celebrate the World Day for Decent Work. Public Services International (PSI) joins the international trade union movement in demanding decent work for all and an end to the continuous attacks on trade union rights around the world. We want jobs that provide decent salaries and social security with safe working conditions.

Photos: KGEU Hunger strike, rally and press conference (photos)

31 January 2013

In January 2013, the Korean government dismissed 137 workers for being activist members of the Korean Government Employees' Union. Among those dismissed were the KGEU General Secretary and President. Kim Jungnam, President of the Korean Government Employees’ Union, launched a hunger strike on 15 January in the streets of Seoul outside the offices of the Presidential transition committee and has vowed to continue his hunger strike until the issues facing his union are resolved.

Photos: WOC and Women's Caucus

27 November 2012

See the 2012 Pre-congress Women's Committee and Women's Caucus photos on Flickr

Photo gallery: Launch of Migrant Desk in Johannesburg, South Africa

12 September 2012

The Migrant Desk will provide information, counselling, organizing, support services and networking for migrants, prospective migrants and returning migrants.

GFMD Civil Society Days

06 December 2011

At the 2011 meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development Civil Society Days, held in Geneva on 29-30 November 2011, civil society groups demonstrated in front of the UN Building in Gene

Human Rights League of Tunisia (LTDH)

24 November 2011

PSI Communicators' Action Network visits the Human Rights League of Tunisia (Ligue Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l'Homme, Nov 3, 2011. Photo: Maria Wattne

Video: Tunisian agricultural workers protesting corruption

24 November 2011

PSI Communicators' Action Network reporting from union activities in Tunis, Tunisia, November 2, 2011

Preventing Hepatitis

22 November 2011

“Preventing Hepatitis” addresses the specific need to vaccinate healthcare workers against Hepatitis A & B in less than 2 minutes.

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The Essential Sharp Sense

22 November 2011

This is a 4 minute summary of the 17 minute video SHARP SENSE produced by the global union federation Public Services International.

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Sharp Sense: Promoting the safety of health care workers

17 November 2011

Healthcare workers face the risk every day of exposure to bloodborne pathogens because of needlestick injuries. In this short video, a nurse, an HIV/AIDS counsellor and an HIV/AIDS physician share their personal experiences with needlestick injuries.

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Bankable versus taxable

04 November 2011

Interview with David Boys (Public Services International and appointed to the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation - UNSGAB) at the Water Operators' Partnerships conference in Amsterdam, 2 November 2011.

Video: World Social Forum Dakar 2011

28 June 2011

PSI utilities officer David Boys tells us about the nature and mechanisms of worldwide privatization of key public services such as water, energy, waste treatment and pension funds in an interview at the 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar.

The Way Forward - Voices from the Global Water Operator Partnership Alliance

22 March 2011

GWOPA brings together public water operators, trade unions, workers and civil society on a platform to discuss, learn and develop model practices for the provision of fair and equal access to public water.