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Ebola Response

Deaths to health workers accounted for six percent of all deaths confirmed as due to EVD, even to the end of the outbreaks. Over 500 health workers, including members of PSI affiliated unions, were killed in the line of duty. PSI is actively lobbying national governments, the ILO and WHO and working with health and allied care workers in our unions to rebuild health systems that can resist future outbreaks in the context of universal access to essential healthcare, which is the core of the post-2015 agenda for health.

Audio: RadioLabour interview with NAHWAL leaders

18 October 2016

In 2014, at the height of the Ebola crisis, the Liberian government fired 22 union leaders. It still has not reinstated two of the fired leaders: Joseph Tamba, the president of the National Health Workers' Association of Liberia and George Poe Williams, the General Secretary . A RadioLabour interview with Mr Williams.

Respect the right to organise - Reinstate Liberian trade union leaders NOW!

06 October 2016

The Liberian regime has no respect for basic Human Rights; or Workers Rights!



In Liberia, the government has arbitrarily fired health workers who were on the front lines of the fight against Ebola; simply because they were trying to ensure adequate protection and working conditions for public workers. Before you consider traveling to or investing in Liberia, think about whether you really want to support a regime which treats health heroes as disposable goods.



Learn more about how to stand up for the rights of Liberian workers by watching the video above and signing the petition below!

UN Commission: New Investments in Global Health Workforce Will Create Jobs and Drive Economic Growth

21 September 2016
PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli joins the Presidents of France and South Africa calling for urgent public investments globally to create new jobs in the health sector in order to prevent a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers primarily in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and help countries to maximize the social and economic benefits of increased health employment.

Safe Workers Save Lives: PSI Health Priorities and Trade Union Response to the Ebola Virus Disease

21 September 2016
Photo: UNMEER/Martine Perret. Creative Commons

At the start of the Ebola crisis, PSI was contacted by its affiliates from the three most affected countries with the alarming news that health workers were dying on the workfloor. This update reports on the work that has taken place on the ground since the implementation of PSI's Ebola response strategy.

Foreword: PSI Health Priorities and Trade Union Response to the Ebola Virus Disease

19 September 2016
Photo: UNMEER/Simon Ruf. Creative Commons

PSI is concerned with the health of all workers, the special risks faced by health workers and the commitment of public service workers to provide quality health services to the populations they serve. Health is a public good, and ill-health is a fundamental humanitarian problem with political, economic and social causes and consequences. Good health is not only a social benefit to individuals and societies, but also contributes to economies because it plays an important role in productivity.

A global view on the impact of Ebola

10 August 2016
Photo: Giros 555. Creative Commons

From the moment the Ebola Virus Disease emerged in Guinea and made its way through Sierra Leone and Liberia, with short but adequately repressed upheavals in Senegal and Nigeria, it affected 28,616 people and caused 11,310 deaths. [This article is an extract from the 2016 update"PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]

Trade union Ebola response strategy

10 August 2016
Photo: Liberia health workers protest at ECOWAS

At the start of the Ebola crisis, PSI was contacted by its affiliates from the three most affected countries with the alarming news that health workers were dying on the work floor. [This article is an extract from the 2016 update "PSI trade union response to the Ebola Virus Disease".]