The Future is Public

Edlira Xhafa is the Executive Director of the Online Academy of the Global Labour University. She has a master's degree in Labour Policies and Globalisation from the Global Labour University (Germany) and holds a PhD in Labour Studies from the University of Milan, Italy. Since 2000, she has been engaged with national trade unions in her home country Albania, as well as in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar. She has also worked for, and collaborated with Education International, Public Services International, Building and Wood Workers' International, International Labour Organisation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and others.

Dr Frank Hoffer is a research fellow of the Global Labour University. He studied in Bremen, London and Moscow. He holds a PhD in Economics. During his professional career, Frank Hoffer was a Labour Attache at the Germany Embassy in Moscow, worked as a senior research officer at the International Labour Organisation and served as the Executive Director of the ACT Foundation. His main areas of interest and research are social policy, wage policies and the application of international labour standards. He is a non-executive director of the GLU Online Academy board

I've been doing research with trade unions on public services for 50 years. My first job in the 1970s involved researching and writing reports saying why the IMF's austerity programme for the UK was wrong, and contributing to campaigns and strikes against that austerity. They are still wrong

Christoph Scherrer is professor for Globalization and Politics and executive director of the International Center for Development and Decent Work at the University of Kassel and a member of Steering Committee of the Global Labour University.

Baba Aye is the Health and Social Sector Officer for Public Services International (PSI), the world wide body linking public sector trade unions with a combined membership of over 30 million across 154 countries.

He Is also the Vice President of Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2). He worked for two decades in the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) before leaving as Deputy General Secretary to join PSI. He was also the pioneering Coordinating Secretary of the West African Health Sector Unions Network (WAHSUN) and a contributing editor of the Review of African Political Economy [RoAPE]

Baba has represented organised labour on several international health panels of experts and guidelines development groups. He is currently a member of the WHO Health Emergencies Program (WHE) ad-hoc COVID-19 IPC guidance development group of experts (COVID-19 IPC GDG) & the WHO 2020 World Patient Safety Day Steering Committee.

SungHee Oh is the Director of International Affairs of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU).
Before joining the KPTU, she worked for the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU) for about 10 years and was the Secretary for Human Rights and Solidarity of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan for more than 3 years.
Her expertise and interests lie in quality public services, labour rights, women's rights and past human rights violations committed by the state.

I am a Professor of labour transformation and social innovation at SUPSI, in Southern Switzerland. Before that I worked for 17 years in South Africa, mostly at Wits University, where I taught heterodox development economics. My research focuses on care work, labour inspection, and the political economy of public policy - with a special interest in New Public Management and its nefarious effects. I have worked closely with unions, in South Africa and in Switzerland, and been an associate of the GLU for 15 years. I created and edited for many years the Global Labour Column and am currently an editor of the Global Labour Journal.

I am currently a doctoral researcher at SUPSI and the University of Zurich (labour geography) in Switzerland. My focus of research is gaining the perspective of workers on how the delivery of care is organised through its labour processes in long-term care, and what this means for quality of care and potential union strategies. I have been involved in the trade union movement through various roles for over 10 years in Canada and now Switzerland. I am a proud MA-LPG (2020) alumni from the University of Kassel.

Bruno is a member of the Our Public Transport program at the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). He is currently based in Toronto, Canada. For seven years he was an advisor in the International Relations Secretariat of the Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA). He holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and is a graduate of GLU having completed a Masters in Globalisation and Labour at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India.

Alana Dave là Giám đốc Giao thông Đô thị tại Liên đoàn Công nhân Vận tải Quốc tế (ITF), có trụ sở tại London. Alana điều hành chương trình toàn cầu của ITF về giao thông công cộng, bao gồm một số dự án chiến lược về tác động tới lao động và các vấn đề của người lao động, bao gồm cả việc chuyển đổi từ việc làm phi chính thức sang chính thức. Bà đã đã điều hành việc phát triển chính sách giao thông công cộng của công đoàn toàn cầu nhằm thúc đẩy mạnh mẽ hơn việc làm bền vững, chính thức hóa, công bằng xã hội và khí hậu, và bình đẳng giới. Alana đại diện cho ITF trong các mối quan hệ đối ngoại với các nhà hoạch định chính sách và các nhà tuyển dụng của hệ thống phương tiện giao thông công cộng.

I completed my Master's degree at Marmara University (Istanbul), Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Development Economics and Economic Growth (2006) and - as part of the Global Labour University (GLU) - at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), Faculty of Humanities, Department of Labour Policies and Globalisation (LPG) (2010). In 2012, I completed my Ph.D. at Marmara University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Development Economics and Economic Growth.

Between 2013 and 2017, I worked at different universities in Turkey. Since May 2017, I have been teaching and researching at the Departments of Labour Policies and Globalisation (LPG) and Global Political Economy and Development (GPED) at the University of Kassel.

I am interested in critical political economy, political economy of development, and labour studies, focusing on labour's collective action.

Just Transitions Officer at Victorian Trades Hall Council, Melbourne, Australia.

Irene is a longtime organizer, educator, and program developer having worked in NYC public high schools, environmental justice organizations, and worker centers. She has a masters in social work and has been working with Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) at the City University of New York, School of Labor and Urban Studies (CUNY SLU) since 2016.