LRG/Municipal sector

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.

On 1st May, Danish public sector unions reached an agreement with public sector employers covering over 700,000 workers in local, regional and central government.

The Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ) is home to around 2.6 million people generating some 2,000 tonnes of waste every day. An Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) system has been in place since 2010, and is currently run by public companies. Among other things, it includes informal waste workers as “environmental managers”.

There have been strikes in a total of eleven Länder and in nearly all federal and municipal public service sectors and institutions. On Friday 13 April too, work stoppages are taking place in many public service sectors and institutions.

Gender pay gap figures disclosed by the UK's biggest companies have shown that the vast majority of them pay men more than women. 78 percent of the companies pay men more.

And why it may represent one of the biggest attacks on trade union rights in recent decades.

After almost ten years of a negotiation freeze unilaterally imposed by Italian public sector employers, in the night between 20 and 21 February, public sector trade unions signed the preliminary agreement towards the renewal of the national-level contract for local and regional government workers.

On 11 February 2018, PSI together with BWI, Action Aid, WIEGO and the UCLG - brought the voices of trade unions, informal workers and local and regional governments in a roundtable at UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum 9, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ILO offered concluding remarks.