Union Movement Works to Halt AIDS/HIV Pandemic

by James Parks, Dec 1, 2009

Today is World AIDS Day, and global union members are reinforcing their commitment to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, which has infected 33 million people worldwide and more than 1 million in the United States. Around the world, the pandemic has devastated workers and their families, shattered communities and reversed the rise in work and living standards.

Among the most vulnerable of those with the disease are some 2 million children worldwide, with 1,000 more becoming infected every day. In the United States, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) is teaming up with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the producers of the fun children’s DVD “Sockville—A New Pair of Socks” to help fight pediatric HIV/AIDS.

For every DVD purchased at a special $9.99 price, $3 will go to the Elizabeth Glaser Foundation, CWA’s charity of choice for nearly 20 years.  Click here to buy the DVD at this special rate and help children with AIDS. This special offer is only good until Dec. 15, 2009.

The situation for adults and children is particularly dire in sub-Saharan Africa. AFT has joined with teachers’ unions in Africa to create the Teachers Caring for Teachers program, which has become a prototype for teachers union across the continent. The AFT Educational Foundation also is working with six teachers unions in South Africa to provide support for teachers affected by HIV/AIDS. So far, the program has reached 750,000 teachers.

With AFT’s help, students in the United States and Africa are learning more about AIDS. In September, students at Artesia High School in Lakewood, Calif., and Manenberg High School in Cape Town, South Africa, began communicating about their experiences with HIV/AIDS in their communities through cyberspace. Students also will visit each others’ schools. Click here to learn more about AFT’s efforts on AIDS.

Also in South Africa, where one of every nine residents is living with HIV, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center has partnered with the National Metalworkers Union of South Africa in a new HIV/AIDS workplace program, “Be Faithful, Be Tested, Be Unionized.”

The five-year program, which began on World AIDS Day 2008, develops and supports workplace HIV/AIDS education and voluntary testing, counseling and services. The nearly all-male metal workers also can learn skills to negotiate workplace HIV/AIDS policies. 

The key to the program’s success: it’s led by the union, not management. Workers in South Africa and other countries fear they will lose jobs or job status if they are perceived as being HIV-positive. During the past year, the program provided HIV/AIDS education to more than 6,000 union members and their families and more than 2,300 workers volunteered to receive counseling and testing for the disease.

In East Africa, the Solidarity Center is a partner in SafeTStop, a comprehensive five-year initiative aimed at bringing HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment to long-haul truckers and communities in the East African transport corridor.

The global economic crisis could severely hamper these and other successful HIV/AIDS programs because governments and employers are cutting back on prevention and education. In a statement, the International Trade Union Confederation said it is “deeply concerned at the impact of the financial crisis on development and thus on combating HIV-AIDS.”

There is clear evidence that the crisis has deepened the already existing inequalities in the world. With 60 million people expected to lose their jobs and 200 million more falling into absolute poverty, trade unions call on governments to keep their promises to deliver resources to…achieve universal access to treatment, and to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the pandemic.

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