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5 March, 2007March 2007
Global Framework Agreement with SCA Includes HIV/AIDS Clause
During a review meeting in Stockholm in January with the Swedish paper multinational Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), the ICEM and the Swedish paperworkers’ union, Svenska Pappers, proposed to include a clause on HIV/AIDS in the updated Global Framework Agreement, which SCA accepted. The company agreed to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
Note to ICEM affiliates
If a company agrees to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, this opens a whole range of possibilities for negotiations and activities for the unions organising in a Global Agreement company. The ten key principles of the Code of Practice include non-discrimination, gender equality, confidentiality, prevention, care and support. You can obtain the Code of Practice from any ILO office or download it at www.ilo.org. It exists in more than 30 languages.
Please note that a Global Agreement applies to all operations of a company worldwide. Often, local management is not familiar with a Global Agreement signed by their head office. Insist on implementation and compliance!
ICEM’s other Global Agreements which include an HIV/AIDS clause are Lukoil, Statoil, and Lafarge. The latter company signed one jointly with the Building Workers’ International. In reviews of existing Global Agreements or in drafting new ones, the ICEM will insist on the inclusion of an HIV/AIDS clause referring to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
Global Fund Chooses new Executive Director
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has chosen Michel Kazatchkine, a physician and global health expert, as the next Executive Director of the Global Fund. He replaces Sir Richard Feachem, the founding Executive Director, who steps down at the end of his five-year term on 31 March.
Professor Kazatchkine is a physician who has treated people with AIDS for more than 20 years, and led the world’s second-largest AIDS research agency. He currently serves as France's Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases. Professor Kazatchkine is a former Vice Chair of the Global Fund Board and first Chair of the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel, which assesses the quality of grant proposals.
In just five years, the Global Fund has become a leading force in the fight against the three diseases. It provides two-thirds of international funding for the fight against malaria and TB, and 20% of the global funding to fight AIDS.
The Global Fund has approved grants for 450 programs in 136 countries with a total commitment of US$7 billion. As of December 2006, 770,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes and nearly 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed to prevent malaria. In addition, tuberculosis programmes have detected and treated two million TB cases under DOTS, the internationally-approved TB control strategy.
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 8 February 2007)
Global Unions Continue G8 HIV/AIDS Campaign
Global Unions continue their campaign for the creation of a high-level Working Group on HIV/AIDS by calling on unions to make representation to German embassies. Such actions are hoped to convince the Heads of State attending the G8 summit this June in Germany to agree to such a Working Group.
The G8 summit in St. Petersburg last year agreed on a tangible process for surveillance of infectious diseases like AIDS. But the G8 has not identified how this process would become a reality and so this has remained an undelivered promise.
The Global Union HIV/AIDS Programme calls on unions to organise special events to deliver letters to the German Embassy in their country on 28 April, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers.
The German embassy action is twined with lobbying at international meetings of environment, health, and labour ministers at the annual meeting of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Health Assembly, and the International Labour Conference.
(Source: Global Unions press release, 23 February)
Some 71,000 people in Ghana are HIV-positive
Out of 71,000 people living with HIV/AIDS throughout Ghana who need drugs, only 6,000 are receiving anti-retroviral drugs from 32 health facilities.
The director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said by July this year, 50% of all district hospitals will be prepared to administer the drugs.
Awuku Amoa was speaking at a workshop for some selected people from the private sector and FM stations in Accra. More than 50 participants from all over the country attended.
Awuku Amoa also said this year a lot of attention will be given to the youth, women and girls as they are more vulnerable. He therefore urged the media to champion the course of the crusade.
The monitoring and evaluation coordinator at the AIDS Commission, Emmanuel Larbi, urged the participants to develop and implement workplace programmes such as condom distribution to reduce the spread of the disease. Topics treated included the National HIV and AIDS Research Agenda, and Ghana HIV Stigma Reduction campaign.
(Source: Radio Ghana, Accra, 7 Feb 07 as supplied by the BBC Monitoring Service)
NUM Protest against Impala Platinum’s Hospital Care
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa gave Impala Platinum a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands to improve health care services at the Impala Mine Hospital near Rustenberg, North West State.
The ultimatum was given when miners staged a march on 23 January. NUM was protesting unfair and inferior treatment of workers at the facility. The union also accused the mine management, doctors and hospital administrators of denying antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS.
The subsequent strike ended on 18 February after management agreed to address the grievances presented to them.
China: Workplace Programme to Help AIDS Prevention
At the end of January, China launched a national program on HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the workplace.
The $3.5 million HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Program, funded by the United States Department of Labor, will be overseen by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and implemented in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, and Yunnan.
"China is now at a critical stage in fighting HIV/AIDS," said Hu Xiaoyi, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, during the launching of the programme in Beijing. "We should try our best to prevent the spread of the disease from high-risk groups to the general public." Hu believed the 39-month programme would be a good model to promote China's anti-AIDS education policy and implementation.
Hu said another five-year education program, jointly launched by 12 ministries in 2005, had set a target of making 85% of the nation's rural migrant workers knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS prevention by 2010.
The Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control stipulated that no employer or individual should discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS or their relatives. The regulation protects their rights of marriage, employment, medical care, and education.
The goal is that all workers with HIV/AIDS are well protected; that they can get jobs, keep jobs and have access to AIDS prevention services, such as education, treatment, and voluntary testing and counselling,
Statistics by the ministry shows in some of the provinces, working-age HIV/AIDS people account for 90% of the total infected population and a majority of them are under age 35 years.
(Source: chinadaily.com.ch 27 January 2007)
Global Fund Round 7: Aidspan Releases Documents to Help Applicants
With the Call for Proposals for Round 7 due on 1 March, Aidspan has published three documents providing guidance for applicants considering applying in this round. The three documents are:
1. “Deciding Whether to Apply for a Round 7 Global Fund Grant.”
2. “Deciding Whether to Submit a Non-CCM Proposal for Round 7.”
3. “Deciding Whether to Submit a Regional Proposal for Round 7.”
All three documents are available at www.aidspan.org/guides.
The text of each document has been extracted from a forthcoming guide, entitled “The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund,” which will be released shortly after 1 March 2007, the expected date for the release of the Call for Proposals.
Already available on the same web page, is “An Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Proposals Submitted to the Global Fund in Rounds 3-6 – Based on Comments of the Technical Review Panel,” which is another excerpt from the forthcoming Round 7 guide.
When “The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund” is released, it will contain, in addition to the above-mention extracts, a step-by-step guide to filling out the Round 7 Proposal Form.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 70, 5 February 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org.) To receive GFO (if you haven't already subscribed), send an email to [email protected].