PSI: O4P’s newest graduate!
Ethan Earle
This article was originally published on the RLS Geneva Office’s website. With the closing of the Geneva location, all posts have now been migrated to and are available on the RLS-NYC website.
Organizing for Power (O4P), which has trained more than 35,000 people in 1,400+ organizations coming from over 110 countries since 2019 – recently concluded a week-long intensive training for Public Services International (PSI), a global union federation representing 30 million public services workers in 700 unions across 154 countries.
Over four days of intensive sessions, O4P gave a special version of its Core Fundamentals training, instructing PSI staff on organizing methods including leader identification, semantics, structured organizing conversations, charting, and structure tests – and how to best incorporate these methods into the particular nature of their work as a global union federation. The training was prepared by O4P lead trainer Jane McAlevey and program coordinator Ethan Earle – in close coordination with PSI’s newly elected General Secretary Daniel Bertossa – and was led by McAlevey and other senior O4P trainers, alongside brand-new trainers from PSI’s staff.
All 45 members of PSI staff from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East were present (the timing making it impossible for Asia-based staff). This means that everybody – from the General Secretary, to regional and thematic program officers, to administrative staff and secretaries – came together, not just to teach new skills but to help PSI build a shared language and culture, an organizing ethos to pervade all of their varied work supporting public service unions across the globe.
As responsible for a PSI sub region, the training is directly connected to my work. I feel enlightened.
Najwa Hanna, sub regional secretary for Arab Countries, PSI
