13th INTERAMERICAN REGIONAL CONFERENCE

​Sunday, November 10, 2024, 9:00 AM
to Friday, November 15, 2024, 6:00 PM
Hotel Tequendama, 26-21 Carrera 10, 110311 Bogotá, Colombia

Speakers

Britta Lejon President - Public Services International (PSI)

Britta Lejon was elected as PSI's President at the World Congress held in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2023. Britta has served as the President of The Union of Civil Servants (ST) in Sweden from 2012 to present, advocating for the rights and well-being of civil servants. She was also president of the National and European Administration Committee of the European region of PSI, EPSU, from 2015 to 2019.

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Olivier Dalichau Director - Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Colombia

Olivier Dalichau is the Director of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Colombia and the Latin American Network for Inclusive and Sustainable Security.

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Margarita López

Margarita López is the titular member for Andean Countries on PSI's Regional Executive Committee IAMREC. She is the President of SINTRACUVALLE, a union of workers in the Society of Aqueducts and Sewers of Valle del Cauca, Colombia.

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Federico Dávila PSI Vice-president

Federico Davila is PSI vice-President for Inter-America. He is a co-founder of the Frente de Gremios Estatales de Latinoamérica y el Caribe and director of the Master's Degree programme in Public Administration at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL, Argentina). He has a degree in International Trade (UNLu, Argentina) and is a specialist in international relations (UNINTER, Paraguay).

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Jan Hochadel Vice President - American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Jan Hochadel is a national vice-president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and president of AFT Connecticut. She has held various union leadership positions, including serving as president of the State Vocational Federation of Teachers, a union of teachers in the state run technical high schools. Jan taught physics and science. She is co-chair of the PSI Interamerica Regional Executive Committee and is an elected PSI Executive Board member. In addition to her union leadership roles, Hochadel is an elected state senator in the Connecticut legislature where she serves as Chair of the Aging commission and vice chair of the Environmental Commission.

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Daniel Bertossa General Secretary - Public Services International

was elected as PSI's General Secretary at the 31st World Congress held in November 2024 in Geneva. 

Danny previously served as PSI’s Assistant General Secretary. He has been with PSI for over ten years, managing policy, advocacy and governance with a focus on PSI's economic policy work in trade, tax, debt and the future of quality public services.

He grew up in Adelaide, Australia where his father worked in a state-owned power station and his mother was a public school teacher. Danny previously worked as an organiser and national officer for unions in Australia and the UK covering local government and municipal workers, health and social services, education and private sector service workers, where he lead multiple campaigns for better pay and job security, and against outsourcing and precarious work. He was Director of Policy and Strategy at the Department of Premier and Cabinet in the Government of South Australia. Prior to that, he was Ministerial Advisor for Public Sector Management, Local Government and Planning, Aboriginal Affairs and Family and Community Services.

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Rafael Freire Netto General Secretary - Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA

Rafael Freire Neto is a sociologist and has been General Secretary of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) since 2019. His participation in TUCA began with its founding in 2008, when he served as Secretary for Political Economy and Sustainable Development, until becoming General Secretary.

Rafael has been a trade union leader with CUT Brazil, beginning in 1986 with CUT Rio Grade do Norte and with the National Education Workers’ Union of Brazil (CNTE), form 1994 to 2006, where we worked as National Secretary for Organising and International Relations. He also occupied the role of General Secretary of the Coordinating Committee of Trade Union Centres of the Southern Cone (CCSCS) from 2003 to 2005.

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Jorge Coronado Board Member & Coordinator - Latindadd, RJFALC, GATJ

Jorge Coronado is a member of the Board of Directors of Latindadd, the Coordination Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Fiscal Justice Network (RJFALC), and the Board of Directors of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ). He is the coordinator of the Integration Group of Latindadd.

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Livi Gerbase Researcher - International Center for Research on Corporate Tax Affairs (CICTAR)

Livi Gerbase is a researcher for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Center for Research on Corporate Tax Affairs (CICTAR). She has coordinated the Public Policy Intelligence Unit of the Government of Mato Grosso do Sul and was a political advisor at the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies – Brazil (INESC).

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Kevin Skerrett Senior Research Officer & Director - Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Carleton University

Kevin Skerett worked as a Senior Research Officer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) for nearly 30 years, primarily focused on pension policy, collective bargaining, and membership education. In 2018, Kevin was co-editor and contributing author to an 11-chapter volume titled "The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism", published by Cornell University Press. In 2021, he was appointed as Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University’s Institute of Political Economy. In 2023, he led the establishment of a new Financialization Research Lab at the Institute, where he now serves as Director.

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Luis Godoy Rueda Coordinator - Open Society – LAC

Luis Godoy Rueda is an Economist and political scientist from ITAM (Mexico), with more than ten years of experience in international organizations and the public and private sectors, working at the intersection of public policy, innovation, and development. He served in the Mexican government as the General Director of the Global Economic Intelligence Unit in the Ministry of Economy. He currently coordinates the Open Society–LAC’s strategy to promote green, inclusive, and equitable economic policies.

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Carolina Ximena Espinoza Tapia Equality Officer - CONFUSAM

Carolina Espinoza Tapia is the President of Confederación Nacional de Funcionarios de la Salud Municipalizada – CONFUSAM the national confederation of municipal health officers from Chile. She has carried out different duties to date: Training Officer, Youth Committee, General Secretary and Presidency. Currently, she is the National Gender and Communications Officer for CONFUSAM and a member of PSI’s World Women’s committee for the Inter-america Southern Cone, she is equally a member of PSI’s Inter-america regional executive committee – IAMREC. Carolina is also a Coordinator of the “NO + AFP” civic network of workers, which challenges the pension system in Chile because it demonstrably delivers a future of misery to the vast majority of retirees, due to the market logic which drives it.

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Pedro Caro President - National Union of Employees of the Directorate of Taxes and Customs (Sinedian)

Pedro Caro is a lawyer and president of the National Union of Employees of the Directorate of Taxes and Customs (Sinedian), and leader of the Federation of Customs and Fiscal Revenue Officials of South America (FRASUR).

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Rosa Pavanelli

Rosa Pavanelli is the former General Secretary of the global union federation Public Services International (PSI), from 2012 to 2023. Pavanelli started her trade union activity in 1978 while working with the Ministry of Labour in Brescia. In 1986 she became a member of the secretariat of the trade union Public Function, responsible for the municipal sector, and then for the healthcare sector. She later worked full-time for Italian General Confederation of Labour, becoming regional General Secretary in 1999, and later President of the public sector branch of CGIL. She has also served as Vice President of the European Public Service Union Federation in 2009,[2] and PSI Vice President for the European Region before being elected at PSI’s World Congress in November 2012. 

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Sofia Scasserra Economist - World of Work Institute (UNTREF), Transnational Institute, Argentine Senate

Sofia Scasserra is an Economist specialising in digital economy, trade, development, and employment. She works as a professor and researcher at the World of Work Institute (National University of Tres de Febrero, UNTREF). She is an advisor to the international trade union movement and the Argentine Senate and is also a researcher at the Transnational Institute.

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Minister of Labor of Colombia Gloria Inés Ramírez Ríos Minister of Labor of Colombia

Gloria Inés Ramírez Ríos is a Colombian teacher, trade unionist and politician, member of the Colombian Communist Party. Since 11 August 2022 she has held the post of Minister of Labour of her country, in the government of Gustavo Petro.

She was president of the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia ( CUT). Between 2006 and 2014 she served as an elected senator with the endorsement of the Polo Democrático.

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