
Issue No 115		12 October 2001

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Health

The Phantom Menace

By Ken Davis, Alison Tate and Jacqui Davison - APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad

Trade unions made an impact this week at an international congress In Melbourne in the global fight against AIDS.

The Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, which ended in Melbourne on Wednesday 10 October, brought together more than 4,000 delegates representing educators, people with HIV, counsellors, donors, academics, health professionals, drug users, sex workers, indigenous peoples, and gay men -- all helping to fight the spread of the pandemic. The congress ended with the adoption of the "Melbourne Manifesto", which called for "the reallocation of resources currently devoted to military expenditures towards HIV programs".

Of the 36 million people living with HIV in the world, over 7 million are in the Asia and Pacific regions which include 60% of the world's population. Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, PNG and parts of India and China are already heavily affected.

At the UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS in June, it was estimated that the cost of implementing programs that would defeat HIV globally was around $7-9 billion US. Already more than that has been spent on the war against Taliban, and is a fraction of the cost of the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York.

Opening the Melbourne congress, Dr Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, the alliance of eight UN agencies working against HIV, affirmed that "universal access" to the anti-retroviral drugs that slow HIV infection was a realisable goal in the Asia and Pacific regions.

ICFTU and socio-economic impacts of HIV

Sharan Burrow, President of the Asia-Pacific region of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), opened the conference plenary on "socio-economic determinants" of the epidemic, raising some of the some of the issues other speakers don't dare to say.

She focussed on vulnerability to HIV infection of families in mobile workforces: refugee populations, transport workers, miners and builders, seasonal food and hospitality workers, teachers sent to isolated areas, soldiers and police. Trade unionists, Burrow asserted, see sex workers as workers with the "same rights as other workers to organise and to expect that their rights to health and safety at work are respected."

While feminist, class and economic analyses are still new frameworks for discussing HIV, we all know they are intrinsic to the respect and understanding of HIV as a human rights and development issue. The international trade union movement therefore has a lot to offer the ongoing fight to halt the epidemic.

Burma

Burrow went on to attack the dictatorship in Burma, "the vilest regime on earth": "The enforced labour policies of the Burmese regime are not only a breach of human rights. They are murderous. The International Labour Organisation has taken the unprecedented step of suspending Burma as a member nation because of these policies. Up to one quarter of working people in Burma have been or are in forced labour. Workers are forcibly removed from their villages and live in labour camps. Burmese workers are forced to escape and work over the border in construction jobs and live in camps placing them at much greater risk of HIV infection. Often the only means of economic survival for some women and children escaping from Burma is sex work. The actions of the Burmese regime are actually laying the groundwork for a huge AIDS epidemic in that country. They should be roundly condemned, as should countries that trade with Burma."

Treatments Access

A key issue for the conference was world trade laws which will extend the exclusive patents of the western drug companies over essential medicines. Two hundred delegates from the PNG and Asia organised a march during the conference to protest for global treatments access. Noting the policies of ACTU, ICEM, ICFTU and COSATU, Burrow pledged the support of the trade unions in this struggle: "It is disturbing to hear that some countries and some pharmaceutical companies are resisting the notion that access to treatments for everyone is not possible. Access to effective treatments for all people with HIV/AIDS is not too hard and the trade union movement will not accept the idea that some people get to live and others don't... We are committed to working against companies who fail to balance the need for human rights with their desire for profit."

Regional trade union action

For the first time, union organisations were featured in the conference program, with a workshop hosted by APHEDA and the ACTU. Representatives of three International Trade Secretariats spoke, as well as Jason Lui, from the ICFTU regional office in Singapore, who reminded participants of the strong policy on HIV adopted by the ICFTU in April 2000 in Durban. ICFTU-APRO is beginning a new research program, to map all the initiatives unions in the region are taking in relation to HIV.

Many examples of trade union-run HIV programs were noted, among dock workers in Kampong Som in Cambodia, among hotel workers in the Philippines and Viet Nam, among garment workers in Phnom Penh, miners in PNG, seamen in Kiribati and building workers in Australia. Unions have different starting points in HIV efforts: occupational health, drug and alcohol programs, discrimination by employers or co-workers, forcible HIV testing by employers, ensuring sickness and death benefits, developing policy about essential medicines, media guidelines, as well as the loss of members and leaders.

Ruth Pollard, NSW President of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance spoke on the policy adopted at the recent Korea conference of the International Federation of Journalists. AIDS not only affects journalists directly, but journalists can play a leading role in public education on AIDS. The IFJ condemns instances where governments are repressing media workers for telling the truth about HIV.

From Aotearoa/New Zealand, Janet Quigley spoke on behalf of Public Service International, as Vice-chair of the PSI Women's Committee and Chair of the Oceania Women's Committee. As a health professional, Quigley is alarmed that Pacific communities are not yet able to discuss HIV prevention issues openly, and reaffirmed PSI's interest in finding ways in addressing these challenges in the region.

Education International was represented by it's international Vvice-President, Susan Hopgood, Deputy Federal Secretary of the Australian Education Union. Teachers must respond to HIV both as trade unionists and as educators of the new generations in sexual health. Three other ITS apologised for being unable to send speakers from the region, due to disruption of air transport..

Many governments, employers, researchers and development organisations have begun AIDS education programs in workplaces in the Mekong region, in the Philippines and Indonesia, but most ignore or oppose trade unions which can play a unique role in providing credible messages to members. AIDS programs which neglect the fundamentals of workers rights are useless. "If, for example, young women clothing workers in the factories in Phnom Penh are defeated in their struggle against exploitation and for dignity as workers, how can they be empowered as women to refuse unsafe sex?" asked Ken Davis, of APHEDA.

ILO Code of practice on HIV

Gunnar Walzholz from the Bangkok office of the ILO explained the recently adopted Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. According to ILO Director General, Juan Somavia, "HIV/AIDS is a major threat to the world of work: it is affecting the most productive segment of the labour force and reducing earnings, and is imposing huge cost on enterprises in all sectors through declining productivity, increasing labour costs and the loss of skills and experience. In addition, HIV/AIDS is affecting fundamental rights at work, particularly with respect to discrimination and stigmatization aimed at workers and people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. The epidemic and its impact strike hardest at vulnerable groups including women and children, thereby increasing gender inequalities and exacerbating the problem of child labour." The long-awaited Code of Practice is and will be a useful tool for activating workers and their employers on the impact of HIV and strategies for reducing workers' vulnerabilities to the epidemic.

South African unions call for solidarity

Theodora Steele, the national campaigns coordinator of the Congress of South African Trade Unions was a guest of APHEDA and the ACTU, and was able to address the Commonwealth Medical Association Conference on AIDS in Melbourne on 4 October on behalf of the Commonwealth Trade Unions Council. Theo is also a leader of the Treatments Action Campaign, which won a major court battle against the Western pharmaceutical manufacturers in Pretoria in April. COSATU is the largest union federation in Africa, and has hundreds of thousands of members with HIV. Theo spoke passionately about the urgent need for international solidarity action campaigns on HIV between trade unions, religious, women's, health, human rights and development organisations.

Internet references:

6th ICAAP Congress, Melbourne 5 -10 October 2001 http://www.icaap.conf.au

ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and world of work - http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/

ICFTU HIV/AIDS Policy Statement, Durban 2001 - http://www.icftu.org/focus.asp?Issue=AIDS&language=EN

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  Issue 115 contents

Interview: Connecting the State
NSW IT minister Kim Yeadon is the man responsible for enabling the people of NSW. Here's how he's doing it.

Workplace: The Enemy Within
In the IT industry it's the recruiters who are earning the workers' ire, as our special correspondent explains.

Unions: From the Virtual Coalface
Computer programmer Vince Caughley argues there is a place for unions in the IT industry.

History: Conditions Precedent
Frank Bongiorno writes that the recent events off the coast of Christmas Island recall a story once told by Paul Hasluck.

International: Victims of Terrorism
Repression against trade unionists on the increase world wide, with 209 trade unionists assassinated last year, reveals ICFTU 2001 Survey.

Campaign Diary: Week One: Get Shorty
Labor's first week of campaigning was as an effort to gain attention from a nation rocked by the telvised war on terrorism.

Economics: Global Alliances
Ray Marcelo reports from India that the ILO is arguing that globalisation needs a worker and employer alliance.

Health: The Phantom Menace
Trade unions made an impact this week at an international congress In Melbourne in the global fight against AIDS.

Review: Rings of Confidence
In his study on the 2000 Olympics, Tony Webb argues that the government and unions reached a new level of cooperation.

Satire: Greens 'Quietly Unconfident' of Forming Government
A leaked memo from a senior member of the Greens reveals the party is unconfident of winning government on November 10.

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