INFORMATION TO FIGHT PRIVATISATION

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INFORMATION TO FIGHT PRIVATISATION

The Public Services International is the international body (ITS) for trade unions in the public sector. The PSI is at the forefront of gathering and sharing information between trade unions about the TNCs that are involved in privatisation.

The PSI has been developing databases of information on the companies involved in water, waste, energy and health. It also has a network of research organisations around the world, including the PSPRU in London (see above) and the Public Sector Research Centre in Australia. They monitor the situation locally and contribute information to the PSI databases. Information on individual companies can be drawn out from the databases very quickly and sent to affiliated unions. It includes reports on how the companies are involved in corruption or fraud, plus directors’ pay, as well as their labour practices and standards of service that they deliver.

In 1996, a PSI affiliate in Pakistan contacted the PSI. The Pakistan government had decided to sub-contract the management of electricity boards in the cities of Lahore and Gujranwala to a US company, the Wing Group. According to local newspapers, the decision was taken without even inviting bids from competing companies. The deal gave the Wing Group huge financial benefits. The union held mass demonstrations in protest.

The information which the PSI was able to send to the union in Lahore included details of a takeover of the Wing Group by another US company Western Resources, basic information on both companies, their activities in the USA, China, Turkey and elsewhere, and their dealings with unions. The PSI also gave information on the Government of Pakistan’s Strategic Plan for restructuring the power sector, the involvement of the World Bank, and Japanese financing. The union used the information to back up its condemnation of the government’s strategy. It said the government was endangering national sovereignty and allowing exploitation of the country’s resources by foreign entrepreneurs.