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26 March, 2009
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report, among other items, on the new HIV/AIDS project in Ethiopia, a planned programme in Mongolia, and further work on the ILO HIV/AIDS instrument.
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to [email protected]. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
Editor: Hans J Schwass, ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant
New HIV/AIDS Project in Ethiopia
The LO/FTF Council, the Danish Solidarity Support Organisation, has obtained funding for a three-year HIV/AIDS project in Ethiopia in cooperation with the ICEM-affiliated National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical and Mine Trade Unions (NEFECM) of Ethiopia.
The main objectives of the project are to reduce HIV/AIDS stigmatisation and discrimination in the high-risk mining sector and to increase the capacity of NEFECM and its affiliated unions to deal with HIV/AIDS at the workplace, negotiate agreements with employers and thus protect workers, their families and the wider community in remote areas.
The ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant will work as a consultant to the project during the first year. After a fact-finding mission in December 2008, the first activities in the framework of the project will be organised in Addis Ababa towards the end of March. A more detailed article on the project and the first activities will follow in the April issue of this e-bulletin.
HIV/AIDS Programme in Mongolia
Thanks to sponsorship from UI Zensen, Japan, the Taiwan Petroleum Workers’ Union and the ICEM HIV/AIDS Project, an HIV/AIDS programme in cooperation with the Federation of Energy, Geology, and Mining Workers’ Union of Mongolia will be organised in August.
As Mongolia is a vast country with natural resources distributed throughout the country, it would not be possible to reach every workplace and union branch to train members and shop stewards. Therefore, 60 peer educators will be trained in two three-day centralised courses, one for the mining sector and another for the energy and geology sector.
Participants will be chosen from union branches all over the country. On completion of the training, their task will be to take a pro-active role at their workplaces in organising awareness campaigns, inform about prevention measures, and advocate voluntary counselling and testing. The union will monitor the activities of peer educators and report back to the sponsors of the programme.
South Africa: Xstrata Sacks 106 Workers
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will contest the sacking of 106 workers at the Rustenberg smelter, operated by Xstrata, the world’s largest ferrochrome producer. NUM spokesperson Lesiba Shesoka said that the workers were sacked for not taking part in a compulsory health briefing in which they said they were to be told they would have to take an HIV test. South African legislation says that no worker can be forced to take an HIV test.
The company, however, said that it had no intention to force the workers to take the test. The company stated that the workers were dismissed for taking part in an illegal strike when they had demanded to be paid 50% of their wages and shift allowances during their extended leave in December. Workers were sent on the long leave due to a drop of demand in ferrochrome, requiring cutbacks in output and the closure of furnaces.
(Source: Reuters, 11 March as reported in Mining Weekly)
Three Per Cent of US Capital City Living with HIV
At least 3% of residents in Washington, D.C., are living with HIV, according to a report published on 16 March by the District of Colombia’s HIV/AIDS Administration.
The Report states that HIV positive people are found in all demographics in Washington: more than 4% of African-Americans, almost 2% of Latinos, and 1.4% of Caucasians are living with HIV. However, African-American men are disproportionately affected, accounting for 76% of people living with HIV.
The United States has one of the largest HIV epidemics in the world, with an estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in 2007.
(Source: News item on UNAIDS website, 16 March)
Contribution from a Reader of the e-bulletin
In a contribution to the February issue of the e-bulletin, Victoria Nanteza Kakooza of Uganda writes on “Women and HIV/AIDS – a Ugandan Perspective”:
Cultural practices, norms and values deprive Ugandan women of the chances to decide whether they have sex with their husbands and to decide on the number of children to have.
Women constitute 38% of the workforce and only 18% are employed in permanent jobs with very few in intermediate and senior positions. This makes a large number of women economically dependent on men. Men take advantage by taking a minimum of three wives, which has tremendously increased the number of people with HIV and AIDS. More so, children born with HIV/AIDS are now mature and dating and passing on the virus to others, hence increasing cases in the new generation.
News from ILO/AIDS
In the course of its work towards the adoption of a new international instrument on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, the ILO has now issued Report IV (2), presenting the views of the ILO's constituents on the new standard.
The first report, entitled HIV/AIDS and the world of work, Report IV (1), was published and disseminated to all ILO Member States in January 2008, and contained a questionnaire to which the Member States, in consultation with the social partners, were asked to respond by 31 August 2008.
The second report, Report IV (2), summarizes almost 250 responses received from governments, employers and workers to this questionnaire. The vast majority of the constituents recognised the need to increase the attention paid to the issue of HIV/AIDS in the world of work through the adoption of a new international instrument. Moreover, there was a general consensus in the replies that the instrument should incorporate and strengthen the ten key principles contained in the ILO Code of practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
On the basis of those responses, the report contains draft conclusions regarding the proposed contents of the new instrument. The first and second reports will now serve as the basis for the discussions to be undertaken at the International Labour Conference in June 2009 on the form and content of the new instrument.
(Source: ILOAIDS website where the two reports can also be accessed)
News from the Global Union AIDS Programme
The Steering Committee of the Global Union AIDS Programme, at its meeting in Brussels on 3 March, discussed, among other items, future cooperation between Global Union Federations (GUFs) on HIV and AIDS. India was chosen as a pilot target country as four GUFs, including the ICEM, have already HIV/AIDS projects in that country.
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