Fighting the casualization of educational and cultural work

Following the founding meeting of the ESCW Network in Buenos Aires in November of 2014, the first Coordinating Committee meeting of PSI’s recently launched Education Support and Cultural Workers Network (ESCW) was held in Geneva on 29 May 2015.

As laid down in the recently adopted charter for the network, PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, nominated the committee members who represent educational and cultural workers' across PSI’s four regions. ESCW Committee Members* include:

• Everline Aketch (Uganda)
• Peters Adeyemi (Nigeria)
• Ruby Newbold (USA)
• Marcelo di Stefano (Argentina)
• José Olvera (Mexico)
• Kristine Hansen (Norway)
• Bjørn Christiansen (Norway)
• Anders Jonsson (Sweden)
• Jon Richards (United Kingdom)
• Mele T. Amanaki (Tonga)
• Bo Hee Choi (Korea)
• *Brazil shall designate a member.

The committee is responsible for leading the network and planning its activities for the next two years. The committee elected Ruby Newbold (American Federation of Teachers-USA) as Acting Chair and Marcelo di Stefano (The University of Buenos Aires Workers Union/The Americas Confederation of University Worker Unions [CONTUA]-Argentina) as Vice-Chair. Mark Langevin, PSI Subregional Secretary for North America will coordinate the network.

The committee identified three major priorities for work:

1. Fighting against privatisations, outsourcing, and the casualization of educational and cultural work;
2. Working to increase the public recognition of the vital contributions to education and culture made by our membership; and
3. Defending the labour rights of educational and cultural workers and fighting to improve their compensation and working conditions.

The committee commits to coordinating solidarity campaigns on behalf of PSI affiliates representing educational and cultural workers. It will also coordinate external communication campaigns to draw attention to the United Nation’s post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals process and the work of international intergovernmental organizations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO, and the OECD.

For more information see:

• PSI Education Support and Cultural Workers’ Network Charter
• Founding meeting of the network
• Survey results
• Photos of the meeting in Buenos Aires
• PSI pages on Education Support

If you would like more information about the ESCW Network and wish to participate, please contact Mark Langevin at mark.langevin@world-psi.org.