Its that time again where we meet and put forward our ideas and develop points to aid us in our development as shop stewards and leaders within our various trade unions across the Caribbean. It is imperative that we use this opportunity to garner as much as we can as this is the final prong of the three fold initiative.

Let us come together with the mindset that we will work our hardest during the few days afforded to ensure that we make it a success.

Climate change ... everyone has a role to play

Heavy flooding in St Lucia

"This has been one of the hottest Septembers that I can remember." "The weather pattern has changed."

Yes the weather is no longer the casual start of a conversation anymore. It's real, it's affecting us all, it's changing - dramatically.

In late September,  the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a summary report on the latest comprehensive science on climate change.  The report confirms what we instinctively know - the planet continues to get hotter and less stable. The IPCC's language suggests that the reason behind it all is human. They say that
human causes are “extremely likely”.

So we have to do something. Not only at policy level but we must take action in our workplaces, ibn our communities and in our unions.

Does your union have an environment policy? Need help in developing one?

Share your suggestions on what your workplaces your unions can do to reduce your carbon footprint?

Civil genocide by a virtual ethnic cleansing

Ginou Jean Baptiste, secretary of the CTSP's young workers' committee, gives her views on the recent decision of the Dominican Republic's Constitutional Court.

"I deplore with all my strength this senseless decision of the Constitutional Court which seeks to remove the right of citizenship from many people of diverse ancestry. This is typically contradictory and fundamentally flawed. The decision of the Constitutional Court Dominican is a violation and a civil genocide by a virtual ethnic cleansing. It does not apply specifically to Haitians but the whole world."

See statement from PSI Caribbean titulars 

Promoting the public good

In this article, Canadians Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage highlight the "taxpayer backlash" that public sector unions face when they seek to defend collective bargaining. "No-one is a disinterested bystander during a public sector strike"

And right-wing, conservative politicians and their supporters seek at every turn to blame the public sector for every wrong in the economy.

Ross and Savage argue that "to overcome these divide-and-conquer strategies, and defend against further attacks on the rights of public sector workers, unions will require new strategic thinking and modes of action. That means more effectively connecting the interests of public sector workers with those of citizens, by linking contract demands to the enhancement of the quality and availability of public services."

Public services are central and key to the quality of our lives and as a result unions need to strengthen the connections between the interests of  those who provide the services and those who use and need the services.

The article focuses on Canada but is equally applicable to developing countries in the Caribbean. We invite you to read the article.

What more can you and your union do to help the public understand and value public services?

Related link

Learn more about the authors and their new book "Public Sector Unions in the Age of Austerity"

The Story of Solutions

Another great short animated video from Annie Leonard. The story of solutions.

It's amazing just how much she and her team have been able to say and illustrate in just over 8 minutes.

For us in the trade union movement, if it aint one thing it's another. The problems just keep mounting. The solutions seem to take longer to work out. In fact, sometimes we wonder if we've really found the solutions.We are all besieged by a myriad of problems.

Check out the video. While the locale is the USA, the pints made apply to anywhere in the world.

What will you be doing to make things better?

Watch the video http://bit.ly/1fJl8oz

Other story of stuff movies:

• The story of Stuff
• The Story of Bottled Water

 

 
 

With friends like these ....

At the beginning of 2012, 20 WTO members (the EU counted as one), calling themselves "The Really Good Friends of Services" (RGF), launched secret unofficial talks towards drafting a treaty that would further liberalise trade and investment in services, and expend "regulatory disciplines" on all sectors, including many public services.

The “disciplines,” or treaty rules, would provide all foreign providers access to domestic markets at “no less favourable” conditions as domestic suppliers and would restrict governments’ ability to regulate, purchase and provide services. This would essentially change the regulation of many public and privatised or commercial services from serving the public interest to serving the profit interests of private, foreign corporations. 

In denouncing the Trade in Services Agreement, PSI, together with civil society organisations throughout the world states "strong regulation of and oversight over both public and private services is crucial for democracy, the public interest and development,as well as for the orderly functioning of the services market. We fear that all of these values and goals would be seriously undermined by this proposed TISA."

The negotiations will impact on everyone - big and small.

Related links
PSI denounces Trade in Services Agreement
Why trade agreements are a new global threat to public services

Communicating with and engaging young workers

Alex White's blog is one of my favourites.

Alex is a writer, campaigner, progressive, social activist and an all round good guy.

In July, he spoke at the Stand Up conference for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions,

His presentation was on how unions can communicate with and engage young workers. 

Learn more about his goals and presentation.

The points he makes are applicable to all countries and their unions.

Visit and sign up to Alex's site. It is a gold mine (or should that be platinum mine?) of information.

Sign up. Learn. Act.