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A report launched on Public Service Day, 23 June, concludes it would have been possible to double the budget allocated to social services with the amount lost to tax evasion and avoidance in Peru between 2006 and 2016. This would have increased the chances of improving the quality of life and development options for women and girls.

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a misguided attack on American public sector employees in its recent Janus vs. AFSCME Council 31 ruling, overturning legal precedent and long-established labor relations practice.

On 19 June, national trade union federations representing a majority of EDF Group workers affiliated to PSI and IndustriAll completed the signature of the renewed Global Framework Agreement on Corporate Social Responsibility with EDF Group, which entered in full force as of 21 June for a 4-year term.

PSI carried out a mission in Lebanon on 29-31 May 2018 under the PSI Project on “Trade Unions, Human Rights and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrants in the MENA,” covering Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria for the two-year period (2018-2019). Implemented in partnership with U2U and the PSI Swedish Affiliates (Vårdförbundet, Vision, Fackförbundet ST, Akademikerförbundet SSR and Kommunal) the project aims to develop the capacity of public sector trade unions to address migration and refugee issues from the rights-based perspective.

What is at stake is not just protecting public companies in services deteriorating due to the current private sector management policies, but loudly demanding the refoundation of quality public service in the public interest, explains Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary.

Since the campaign to bring the municipal waste collection service back into the public sector in 2003, the Asuncion Municipal Workers’ Union (Sindicato de Obreros y Empleados de la Municipalidad de Asuncion, SINOEMA) affiliated to the PSI, has worked hard to maintain a quality service. The union encourages working class solidarity with recyclers and other informal workers because it understands that they and the community have an important role in keeping waste management under municipal control.

What began as a pilot project in the mid-1990s is today a benchmark for Urban Integrated Solid Waste Management (GIRSU - UISWM). Recognition of the contribution made by workers, combined with the involvement and commitment of the community, have been key factors in the success of the local plan.

Unions from every PSI region successfully negotiated new ILO guidelines to ensure decent work in public emergency services (PES). Workers, employers and governments adopted the new guidelines on 20 April 2018, which will be presented to the November 2018 ILO Governing Body for approval.

Union women from around the world attended the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW62), which took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 12-23 March 2018.