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Media Releases

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Media release: Secret negotiations threaten public services in 50 countries


28 April 2014

A new report by Public Services International (PSI) warns that governments are planning to take the world on a liberalisation spree on a scale never seen before. The report comes as governments are resuming multilateral talks on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) at a closed-door meeting in Geneva, starting 28 April 2014. Under the name the ´Really Good Friends of Services,’ a group of 50 countries— representing an estimated 70 per cent share of the world’s trade in services—are negotiating the TISA.

As Korean workers fight for their rights, Swiss do business with Korean President


17 January 2014

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is arriving for a state visit to Switzerland this weekend. But while she enjoys Swiss hospitality, Korean workers will be striking for their rights in Seoul.

Media Release: Bali deal confirms WTO not able to reconcile trade and development


09 December 2013
David Robinson EI - Rosa Pavanelli PSI

The official package agreed in Bali and released with great fanfare on 7 December demonstrates how unbalanced the global trade agenda still is.

The WTO continues to be unable to craft trade policies that serve development and are consistent with the most important issues for the world’s poor, such as food security.

While India’s refusal to accept a temporary solution on food security has been addressed, the terms of the deal are much less favourable, leaving many other developing countries vulnerable in the medium term, with only a much watered down LDC package in return.

Will America destroy the WTO?


03 December 2013
Rosa Pavanelli - PSI General Secretary

EDITORIAL OPINION - 3 December 2013:

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference opens in Bali today. A tang of fear and desperation wafts from huddles of developed world negotiators. In the last 48 hours, India and other developing countries have been put under intense pressure to agree a deal at any cost.

The collapse of the talks in Geneva last week, that sent the USA and its allies scurrying to blame India and the developing world, was dramatic. However it was entirely predictable.

Violence against women is an age-old problem – it is time to end it now.


25 November 2013
PSI violence against women poster

“If we act with courage, conviction and commitment, we can change violence against women from being the most pervasive violation of human rights to being a rare occurrence that is considered unacceptable and no longer tolerated.” Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, on International Women’s Day (8 March 2013).

Public service workers resist austerity ‘social experiment’ in Greece


23 November 2013

The global union federation Public Services International joins Greek workers taking to the streets today in a general strike to protest the continued cuts to decent jobs and public services imposed by the ‘Troika’. In return for continued financial assistance, Greece has agreed to cut up to 40,000 public workers over the next two years.

Mobilizing for action – public service workers aim for social and economic justice in Asia Pacific


18 October 2013
group photo

More than 100 leaders of unions affiliated to the global union federation Public Services International concluded meetings in Bangkok, Thailand this week by committing to take joint action to build the power and influence of public service workers in the Asia Pacific region.

The unions identified strategies to address a number of important issues, including fighting harmful free trade agreements, stopping privatization and related corruption in public services, ending violence against women, and advancing positive solutions through tax justice, stronger trade union rights, and supporting young workers and migrant workers in public services.