| PSI in Utilities |
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 Utility services such as water, waste, gas and electricity
are fundamental building blocks of society. Without access to
water, no society can develop. Electricity allows our children to
study, our factories to produce. These utilities are far too
essential to be left solely to unpredictable market forces. It is
the responsibility of government to ensure equitable
delivery.
PSI members are committed to delivering
reliable, accessible and equitable utility services in their
communities. We help our member unions deal with the
ideologically-motivated privatisation and deregulation agendas that are
devastating the world's utilities. Workers and their
unions must be involved in all proposals to improve these
services.
If you would like to contribute to the PSI Utilities programme,
please contact david.boys@world-psi.org
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Latest News |
Unions fight corruption, build strong public utilities
A union delegation travelled to Huancayo, Peru, where they achieved a public-public partnership between water utilities.
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Water Remunicipalisation Tracker - check it out!
As more and more communities insist on returning water and wastewater services to public management through remunicipalisation, water multinationals are forced to pull out of services in Latin America, the United States, Africa and Europe. Increased tariffs and a failure to deliver promised improvements have left water multinationals facing increasing opposition.
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Water, Women, Workers: sources of life
The campaign message "Women and trade unions call for safe, affordable and efficient water for all" is accompanied by a focus for 2008 on climate change and sustainable development. Please inform us of any activities you are organising for this campaign, which runs from 8 to 22 March 2008.
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Oversight group would be part of deprivatization
STOCKTON - A city panel Thursday endorsed a plan for the transfer of Stockton's water and sewer utilities from private to municipal control, promising in the transition's oversight to involve activists who sued the city to undo its privatization deal.
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French public water operators 60% cheaper than private
For the second consecutive year, a French consumer group has published research that shows a huge gap in the cost of private and public water.
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Unions agree on priorities for energy and water policy
Energy and Water Unions from Latin America met in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 28-30 October and agreed on a list of priority actions for the region.
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Press Statement: Denouncing the Seoul Metropolitan City Government's Water Privatization Plan
On August 10, Seoul Metropolitan City government announced its plan to turn Seoul Metropolitan City Waterworks into a public corporation by 2012, as well as consign 19 other administrative and public services to private management.
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Working together to meet MDGs on water
PSI has called on unions and management to work together to help developing countries increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
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Water cooperation agreements in Argentina and Peru
Unions in Latin America are reacting to the failure and bankruptcy of the privatisation model. In the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina and of Huancayo in Peru, the trade unions of the water and sanitation workers have convinced management and local authorities to conduct a public-public partnership between the public utilities and the two unions.
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Stand Up and Speak Out on 17 October
PSI is part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). PSI affiliates are requested to join the world wide actions October 17, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
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| New thinking |
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We urgently need to rethink privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation. These strategies are all failing. The links below will take you to a wealth of research which demonstrates this. Corporate control is failing to provide more investment capital and better governance of public utilities. The costs of these failures are being imposed
directly on utility workers. As jobs are cut, health and safety protections are reduced, and training is minimised, all in the name of profits and ‘competition’. And it is our communities which suffer in the long run.
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8 - 22 March 2008
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