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Impact of privatisation

Andrew Banda, deputy general secretary of NUTAW, Zambia

In Zambia, privatisation started in the early 90s. As unions we witnessed a massive outsourcing, and many retrenchments. Where services couldn’t be outsourced, workers who were retained were given new contracts of employment, which were worse than previous contracts.

Drivers working under the kilometre or load system are a typical example. They are forced into long hours of work and separated from their families for weeks and even months. Inevitably this creates fatigue, and causes an increase in road accidents.

Under these dreadful conditions, drivers have more of a tendency to do desperate things, including having unprotected sex with commercial sex workers. This has surely brought in an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS. We are not surprised that the HIV prevalence rate increased drastically after privatisation. Now companies are paying the price in monetary terms – medical and death-related benefits, which add to their personnel expenses.

Industrial action for change

Abner Tabudi Ramagkolo, SATAWU, South Africa (ITF sub-regional coordinator, Southern Africa)

Since we started our South African road-freight industry initiative ‘Trucking Against AIDS’ in 1999, we have established 10 roadside wellness centres. Also we have two additional mobile roadside centres.

We have provided awareness education to about 140,000, distributed more than 3 million condoms and more than 50,000 patients have visited the wellness centres.

But it wasn’t easy for this project to get to where it is today. Between 1993 and 1999 we waged a long struggle of negotiations with employers, who did not want to talk about HIV/AIDS, saying they should not be blamed for sins they did not commit.

Eventually in 1999 we decided to mobilise our members to prepare for industrial action. On the eve of the strike we were urgently called to a meeting with the Road Freight Employers’ Association and the Transport Ministry. At the end of the meeting we signed a principle agreement committing parties to agree on implementation of an AIDS policy.

Nowadays transport companies are claiming to be champions of the project. That is how we managed to have a project like this, which is sponsored by both the employees in the form of a levy and employers contributing an equal percentage, based on the number of employees employed in each company. The agreement is enforceable by law.

Supporting orphans

Moyo Sibusisiwe, ZARWU, area organising secretary, Zimbabwe

We have decided to establish a fund, the Relief Orphans Trust Fund, by allocating a certain percentage from the membership subscription. This fund is used to take care of terminally ill transport workers and the family members and orphans they may leave behind. But our campaign mainly focuses on orphans, because they are our future. Otherwise AIDS will undermine their education, because they will be forced to drop out of school. When children lose the love, care, guidance, and knowledge of one or both parents, this also weakens the transmission of knowledge and capacity from generation to generation. We are determined to keep the fund going, and to introduce more activities for the orphans of transport workers.”

Securing the right agreement

Mugeni Ouma Naphtal, education secretary, ATGWU, Uganda

Following the FNV-funded ITF pilot project of 1999, our union managed to develop an HIV/AIDS workplace policy. To date we have been able to include these policies in 20 different collective bargaining agreements. We also assisted in the formation of four community-based groups, which carry out sensitisation in the local communities where they are based. These groups reach the long distance truck drivers who use these places as stopovers.

In some of the companies where we operate, companies offer anti-retroviral drugs free of charge to our members, who have declared their HIV positive status. Of course, this is done by ensuring full confidentiality – something we have negotiated and included in the collective bargaining agreements. Our union has made it a point that the HIV/AIDS workplace policy should be included in all our collective bargaining agreements wherever we are organised. We are also aiming to establish liaison offices/rest places at the two border points in Busia and Malaba if we can secure the necessary funding.

Lagos-Abidjan corridor project

Nazi Kabore, ITF sub-regional coordinator, francophone countries

This is a regional project for ITF-affiliated unions that seeks to combat HIV/AIDS across several countries – namely Niger, Mali, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar. Most of the transport unions in these countries have already run activities aimed at changing the behaviour of their members.

At the moment our priorities are to develop policies to continue the awareness-raising process, and to engage employers in the development of workplace policies, as well as negotiating collective bargaining agreements. These should contain clauses on the treatment, care and support of affected workers, and the eradication of discrimination and stigma. The first activities in the project are about to start.”

Gender dimension is crucial

Geneviève Mukandekezi, ITF HIV/AIDS project consultant, francophone countries

The gender dimensions to HIV/AIDS are crucial and this is well acknowledged by all the participants attending the best practices seminar. Transport union leaders are aware of the fact that roles played by women and men in society affect all aspects of the disease. Women are often less able to negotiate safe sex, suffer greater social stigma from being HIV positive and, as the principal family carers, may have added burdens if there is AIDS within the household.

Women, and especially girls, are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence and coercive sex. This increases the risk of infection of women. At the end of the seminar, after having shared our best experiences of gender mainstreaming, all the participants showed their determination to mainstream gender into their activities. Making progress on the gender equality front certainly will help reduce the scale, severity and duration of the global AIDS epidemic. The future is full of hope!

Interviews by Kemal Ulker.