Education Support and Cultural Workers’ Network: 14-point action list
22 March 2017
At its meeting on 2-3 December 2016 in London, UK, the Education Support and Cultural Workers’ Coordinating Committee came up with the following action list for the sector:
- The ESCW Network embraces the challenges set out in Objective 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and proposes a trade union agenda to achieve these outcomes through union discussions and debates within the international intergovernmental organizations. Towards this end, the network will interact with the PSI affiliate community and across sectors in relation to achieving the goals of decent work, respect for trade union rights, and the delivery of quality public services for all.
- The ESCW Network will propose to the ILO and UNESCO, in collaboration with other trade union organizations, complementary norms and rules for those relevant ILO Conventions as they apply to educational support and cultural workers.
- The Network recognizes the need to draft a specific document that establishes the ideological and political positions of PSI in relation to education and culture as human rights and the requirement that governments guarantee universal access to quality public services that make education and culture available to all.
- The Network proposes to advance a campaign against privatization and outsourcing, and other forms that transfer the delivery of public cultural and educational services to the private sector. To advance this goal, the Network will work with the PSI community and civil society at large.
- The Network seeks to take advantage of the experiences of such affiliates as Unison and AFT, to develop and implement a campaign against violence and bullying in schools.
- The Network proposes to the Secretary General of PSI that the ESCW hold a general meeting at the 2017 PSI World Congress in Geneva to include all educational support and cultural workers in the Network.
- The Network proposes to engage and work to contribute to the deliberations of the PSI constitutional entities to draft the PSI Programme of Action (POA), 2017-2022, and work with the Secretary General to include the Coordinating Committee’s contributions to the POA.
- To permit the successful functioning of the Network, the ESCW Coordinating Committee and PSI staff must work in collaboration and with joint responsibilities for decisions and implementation, to guarantee the free flow of information and identification of consensus.
- The Network proposes to improve its solidarity actions and alerts in order to strengthen and defend PSI affiliates, especially in the educational and cultural sectors.
- The Network understands that its strategic success relies on better analysis of the work and activities carried out by the International Financial Institutions, the OECD, and other NGOs that influence educational and cultural policies at the global and national levels.
- The Network, in collaboration with PSI, will work to establish and deepen alliances with civil society, trade union organizations, and the student movement to create a common framework for defending the right to a public education and culture through quality public services.
- The Network proposes to develop and distribute audio-visual and other media tools that can advance our campaigns and demonstrate our support for educational and cultural workers as well as quality public educational and cultural services.
- The Network dedicates itself to improving and extending its communications throughout the Network and PSI in general.
- The Network will work to organize and affiliate Cultural and Library workers’ organizations, and develop specific media materials in the coming years to achieve such outcomes.