United Kingdom

I’ve signed www.petitionpublicservice.eu. Have you ? Stephen Hughes, MEP

www.stephenhughesmep.org/

Protect our public services

We must resist pressures towards forced privatisation in Europe
by Brendan Barber - March 22
The Eurosceptic press and too many British ministers tell us the UK is different from everywhere else in Europe. In reality, the similarities are greater than the differences.
Take public services. Each country has a slightly different definition - in France, the railways are still in public hands; in Sweden, even the off-licences are government-run. In every EU country, there is a public sector (...)

GMB pledge major push for European public services petition

(28 March, Brussels) EPSU United Kingdom affiliate GMB gave a major boost to the European wide campaign ’Quality Public Services - Quality of Life’ in Brussels last week. The GMB Senior Management Team, took time during a visit to Brussels to give support to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) initiative www.petitionpublicservice.eu.
The team, made up of national and regional leaders, are pictured giving their support to the petition. GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny (pictured (...)

UNISON rolls out petition plea to 40,000 activists

(13 March, London) The momentum for www.petitionpublicservice.eu continues to build this week, as UNISON announced plans to involve 40,000 activists in the push for one million signatures for the petition. The initiative, from the UK’s biggest union, brings the petition, and most importantly, the need for a framework law for public services to the grassroot level.

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis stated that "Public Services in European are under attack, which is why UNISON is supporting a call for a European law to protect public services from (...)

Campaign tips! No 2: Stamp your way to a million signatures

(7 March, London) EPSU affiliate UNISON (www.unison.org.uk) have come up with an ingenious way of publicising www.petitionpublicservice.eu. International Officer and EPSU campaign coordinator for the UK, Nick Crook, explains the initiative; "UNISON has decided that from next week, the image attached to this story (which is a postal stamp or frank), will be used as a stamp on all our post". Nick explained that: "as you can imagine, with a membership of 1.3 million, this means a lot of (...)

I’ve signed www.petitionpublicservice.eu. Have you?

PLEASE GIVE US 30 SECONDS OF YOUR TIME FOR A MORE CITIZEN FRIENDLY EU.

C. Fischbach-Pyttel, EPSU General Secretary, H. Lanning, Deputy General Secretary PCS, UK, signing the petition

Nick Crook, International Secretary UNISON, UK, signing the petition

M. Clancy, Prospect UK, signing the petition, and J.W. Goudriaan, EPSU Deputy General Secretary

S. King, GMB UK, signing the petition

From right to left: T. Grieve, G. Jillett, S. Bloomfield, M. Melia, E. Duffy (UNISON, UK) signing the petition

I am proud to say that I have signed the petition calling for a legal instrument for public services at the EU level. For the next 12 weeks, EPSU and its 200+ affiliates, will be making the ETUC petition on public services our number one priority. We aim, in association with the ETUC - find your national confederation here - the other European Trade Union Federations, and our growing list of allies, to reach our target of one million signatures by the start of the ETUC congress in Seville on 21-24 May.

Let us remember that the gathering of one million signatures is the message. Our aim, indeed our long term struggle, is to have a strong legal instrument at EU level that reflects the value of public services in European society, recognises the (...)

National Civil Service strike - January 31, UK

(31 January, 2007) EPSU affiliate PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union) will today stage a massive action in protest at the UK Government plans to slash thousands of public administration jobs. EPSU General Secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel stated that: “this action, and tellingly the support it is receiving from the general public, is a clear message to the UK Government that enough is enough”. She added that: “across the European Union more and more actions are (...)

TUC tells Government to stop selling public services short as workers lobby Parliament to oppose privatisation

(Press release 23 January) As public service workers set out for Westminster today (Tuesday) to lobby MPs, the TUC has told the Government to stop undermining public services by underselling real improvements made since 1997 and to work with staff and service users to secure the changes needed to improve services further.
In a response to a No10 Strategy Unit discussion paper , the TUC says that unions accept the need for continuous improvement in public services. But the TUC paper, Reform, (...)

TUC Conference puts focus on Europe and public services

Public services are currently at the heart of political debate in Europe. The debate, whether the role of the state is to provide essential public services or whether they should be opened up to the private sector, is one that will ultimately have a major influence on the lives of people in the UK. On 20 January, Stephen Hughes MEP, and Brian Synnott, European Public Services Unions, were keynote speakers at a conference hosted by the Northern TUC at the International Centre for Life.
Brian (...)

UNISON and TUC sign up to ETUC petition on public services!

(7 December, Brussels) The EPSU campaign for public services received a major endorsement from the UK recently. Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, and Dave Prentis, General Secretary of the biggest public service union UNISON, took time out to sign the European Trade Union Confederation petition on public services http://www.petitionpublicservice.eu/. The petition calls on the European Commission to produce a legal instrument on public services immediately.
The TUC and (...)