PSI’s first Coordinating Committee for Education
Support and Cultural Workers' Network (ESCW), meeting in Geneva on 29 May,
commits to fighting privatisation, outsourcing and 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, as well as external communication campaigns to introduce the network
and its objectives to such international intergovernmental organizations as the
International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO, the OECD, and the United
Nation’s post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals process.
For more information see:
·
PSI pages on Education Support
