In Brief: Best practice in other sectors
FASHION AWARENESS BLITZ
The South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) has been carrying out an annual HIV awareness blitz among fashion industry workers since 2003.
Each year the blitz, held between April and May, can reach up to 52,000 clothing, textile and leather workers in 242 factories country-wide, with a focused awareness HIV/AIDS message such as, “There is no cure, but there is treatment.” Thousands of condoms are distributed in the factories during the period of the campaign.
The event is conducted by staff members from SACTWU’s HIV/AIDS Project, assisted by senior SACTWU shop stewards who have been trained over a long period as HIV/AIDS master trainers.
The awareness blitz is an important annual event in the union’s calendar. It constitutes the biggest campaign of its kind – getting a clear message to a large number of workers in a limited timeframe – in any industry.
COMPREHENSIVE PROTECTION FOR MINEWORKERS
The chief executive of international gold mining company AngloGold signed a wide ranging agreement with trade unions in 2002 after surveys suggested that 30 per cent of its 45,000-strong South African workforce was HIV positive.
The agreement recognises the threat posed by HIV/AIDS, defines the rights and obligations of stakeholders and commits AngloGold to develop and maintain responsible programmes in partnership with the trade unions to minimise the impact of the disease.
Key features of the AngloGold programme include a partnership with the trade unions, who implement and review the programme through a joint management-labour committee, and workplace prevention activities, including training, peer education and condom distribution. The programme makes voluntary counselling and testing available to employees and partners and incorporates a wellness management programme for employees with HIV, including antiretroviral therapy.
Sex workers in the vicinity receive peer education, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and condoms. Through partnerships with industry and non-government organisations, AngloGold now provides home-based care for 45 per cent of employees retired through ill health.
ADVOCATING FOR MEMBERS AT HOME AND AWAY
ITF-affiliated British trade union Unison has more than 1.3 million members working in the National Health Service and local authorities, colleges and schools, transport, the police service, and the electricity, gas and water industries.
The union’s work on HIV and AIDS is now one of its main international priorities and is expressed through political lobbying and practical solidarity with sister public sector trade unions in developing countries.
At the same time, UNISON officers at home are helping the union’s members to deal with HIV and AIDS in the UK, where infection rates are relatively low.
Unison promotes the rights of members living with HIV and AIDS, educates health workers on universal precautions to prevent infection, and protects the rights of people who face stigma and discrimination because of public ignorance and misconceptions about the virus.
The union does this by publishing guidance for its branches on dealing with HIV/AIDS and enforcing government legislation, as well as by training shop stewards, health and safety representatives and union officials. The aim is to encourage member branches to have policies in place in every workplace, and to equip shop stewards with the information they need to provide comprehensive advice.
ORGANISING SEX WORKERS IN CAMBODIA
The Cambodian Prostitute Union has helped to reduce HIV infection in the sex industry by educating sex workers about safer sex and their rights. It uses its collective strength to show sex workers how to stand up to brothel owners and clients, for example if they deny workers the right to safe sex practices.
Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, the aid arm of the Australian Council of Trade Unions – was instrumental in helping sex workers form the trade union during its work in Cambodia on HIV and AIDS in the late 1990s, in partnership with a leading women’s NGO in the country.
Cambodia has the highest HIV rate in South East Asia, but the country’s HIV rate has fallen significantly, from an estimated four per cent of the population in 1999 to 2.6 per cent in 2002.
The success is due to large-scale efforts by the government, NGOs and other groups, including trade unions, to direct education and treatment at groups
that are at risk. The CPU has played an important role in this success.
Peer educators, often union members who are HIV positive, run training sessions for the women on HIV awareness and prevention. More importantly, the trade union teaches the women how to assert their own rights, and backs their case if they encounter resistance from clients and brothel owners.
Helped by the government’s decision to order all brothels to insist on the use of condoms, the CPU takes any complaint from a member about unprotected sex straight to the brothel owners.
BEST PRACTICE AWARD FOR YOUTH PROJECT
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has been awarded an NGO Best Practice Award by the United Nations Population Fund for its pioneering project on sexual and reproductive health for Filipino youth.
The project focuses on workers aged 18 to 25. Its goals are to broaden young people’s knowledge of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and AIDS, and to encourage safe sexual behaviour. It does this by building the leadership capacities of young people, training workers as young adult peer educators, developing youth-friendly materials, engaging trade union leaders and employers in discussions and actions on youth sexual and reproductive health, and harnessing multi-sectoral partnerships.
The project shows that the workplace has vast potential for the implementation of sexual health programmes for young people. It also demonstrates that young workers can act as important agents of change and advocates for sexual health if they are helped to develop their leadership skills and given opportunities for action.
FIRST BIG STEPS IN PREVENTION AND SUPPORT
A large scale project to deal with the effects of HIV/AIDS on employment is entering its fourth year in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project was launched in 2003 by the regional organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (Orit) and the Latin American HIV/AIDS organisation Laccasso.
A major factor driving the project (which is part funded by the Spanish confederation UGT) was the low level of engagement by trade unions in the region, and the lack of information about the impact of HIV and AIDS on the workplace. Hence the first stage of the project involved gathering national information from labour groups and AIDS organisations. Each country was then asked to analyse the status of their trade union rights.
The reports diagnosed the extent of stigma and discrimination experienced in the workplace by people who are HIV positive. They also identified serious weaknesses in national responses to the epidemic.
Although each country had laws prohibiting discrimination, enforcement was non-existent. Participation by workers in labour issues related to HIV/AIDS was extremely limited. Few trade unions had made HIV/ AIDS a priority. Moreover, few ministries of labour had workplace policies dealing with HIV prevention, treatment, training or reinstatement of dismissed workers.
Trade unions in the region have now committed themselves to take part in urgent work on prevention and assistance on HIV and AIDS. They are also being urged to become actively involved in national responses to the epidemic and to monitor the enforcement of legislation in the workplace.
HIV prevalence in Latin America has been steadily rising for over a decade. The Caribbean is the second highest affected region in the world.
These cases are taken from the Global Unions best practice document: Global reach: how unions are responding to HIV/AIDS, published by ILO, UNAIDS, ICFTU and the Global Unions Programme on HIV/AIDS. To order a copy of the report visit: www.global-unions.org/hiv-aids/
