HIV/AIDS enters the mainstream

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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 22 January 2006 > HIV/AIDS enters the mainstream

Kemal Ulker reviews the progress being made by African trade unions in their fight against the pandemic

Some 25 transport trade union leaders and activists, from 18 African countries, attended a five-day ITF seminar in September 2005 in Mukono, Uganda, which aimed to help them incorporate HIV/AIDS work into the mainstream of their activities.

The choice of host country was deliberate. Uganda, once shouldering the burden of the worst HIV prevalence rate in the world, has achieved a significant decline in infections as a result of a strong national commitment to awareness-raising and health promotion to combat the disease.

For trade unions, mainstreaming HIV/AIDS means bringing the issues surrounding the pandemic into all the strategic planning, programmes and day-to-day activities of the organisation. The seminar aimed to facilitate this process, by drawing on good practice guidelines, the national legal frameworks of the countries concerned, as well as sample workplace policies and selected clauses from collective bargaining agreements. Most important, it emphasised the need for a high level of commitment from the trade union leadership and front line to a long-term, systematic process.

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Facing up to realities

Government leadership is a vital goal for trade unions in countries where this is not forthcoming. In many instances they need to overcome government inaction borne of fear. It might be fear of discouraging foreign investment or losing tourists if the HIV status of the country is publicised, or a reluctance to invest funding in the fight against HIV/AIDS due to serious budget constraints.

Even where state commitment is evident, it is vital to ensure that governments create partnerships with trade unions and civil society organisations and use their skills and areas of expertise.

The spread of AIDS, fuelled by poverty and gender inequality, has created a vicious spiral – in which both ills are perpetuated. HIV/AIDS affects both the productivity of employees living with the disease and productivity in general.

In some countries the epidemic has attained a scale at which the impact on the economy and, even more broadly, on societies, is evident and serious. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are often coerced into unsafe sex, and are suffering a faster rate of infection than men, as well as worse social stigmas and a greater burden of family care. It is clearly crucial to the fight against HIV that trade unions should commit to making progress on the gender equality front.

Unions reach higher gear

Unfortunately, the seminar confirmed that many transport companies operating in Africa are still failing to put HIV avoidance policies in place. This is despite the strength of the argument that in the absence of workplace policies and programmes, drawn up together with trade unions, the company’s profits, salary levels, and benefit levels will not be sustainable in the mid-term. The loss of workers in their most productive years signals only the beginning of the damage the epidemic will eventually wreak upon business, the economy and society.

Some unions have put in years of work to persuade companies first to introduce workplace policies and then to bring these into their collective bargaining agreements. In some instances, unions have felt the need to resort to industrial action, with some positive results.

The ongoing liberalisation of world trade and globalisation of production is creating a seamless, multi-modal freight transport system operating along main transport corridors. The consequences of this development are not only national, but also sub-regional and beyond with regards to the vulnerability of transport workers to HIV/AIDS. This reality is reflected in the active support and participation of transport unions in regional and sub-regional projects.

It was clear from the contributions of delegates to the ITF HIV/AIDS best practice seminar that African transport unions are moving their response to HIV/AIDS into a new phase. The political commitment of transport union leaders has grown stronger, while rank-and-file mobilisation is also becoming more dynamic. Important achievements have been made. But, the scale of the epidemic in the continent’s transport industry requires a still stronger, sustained and more effective effort in the fight against the disease.

Kemal Ulker is HIV/AIDS coordinator for the ITF.

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Issue 22 January 2006

Other pages for HIV/AIDS enters the mainstream:
Positive stories | The struggle with HIV/AIDS

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