Water and sanitation

Local 537 of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (UWUA) marked an important win after ratifying a new labour agreement with Pennsylvania-American Water. The new agreement brings nearly 150 workers back off strike and turns back management demands to eliminate long-standing protections against subcontracting.

Utility workers in Pittsburgh, USA, have ratified a new union contract that includes solid job protections for working families and ends an eight-week work stoppage by nearly 150 union workers at four Pennsylvania-American Water worksites throughout the Pittsburgh area.

On 31 July, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board declared that American Water illegally slashed healthcare and other benefits for 3,200 workers in nearly 70 different bargaining units in fifteen states across the U.S.

A recent Asia Times article studies how the control of Jakarta water may change if Jakarta governor and presidential hopeful Joko Widodo wins the July 9 polls.

Remunicipalisation, or the taking back under public management of previously privatised public services, is a growing trend. Together with our allies, PSI is supporting information gathering and exchange, in order to assist campaigns and decision-making.

Private water companies Veolia and Suez, who controlled the Paris water supply from 1985 until its remunicipalisation in 2008, say "The Paris remunicipalisation decision has done a lot of damage to our profession." More and more cities are choosing to bring water back into public hands.

The privatization of the Greek water companies in Athens and Thessaloniki has been frozen. This was the news reported to the General Assembly of the Thessaloniki water company (EYATH) today. Workers representatives cheered the report that the ongoing privatisation of the public company is in direct conflict with a decision of the Council of State which had decreed that the privatization of the Athens water company sought by the Greek government and welcomed by Eurozone President and Dutch Finance minister Dijsselbloem was illegal. The workers, their union and a broad coalition of social movements had already successfully organized a referendum in which 98% of votes cast of nearly 220.000 people said No to the privatization, 18 May 2014.