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15 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 47/2004
An initiative by the 20-million-member ICEM to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan African countries took a major step forward 20-21 November when regional train union coordinators from 17 countries met in Benoni, South Africa, to establish an organizational structure. Coordinators convened prior to the Global Union Federation's World Sectoral Conference on Mining to plan an infrastructure for an ambitious ICEM project that would bring HIV/AIDS relief to workers and others most inflicted by the disease.
ICEMs African HIV/AIDS Coordinators Meet in Benoni, South Africa.
Brussels-based ICEM, the leading GUF in energy and mining sectors, has called on major oil and mining multinationals to join with it to establish fully-equipped medical clinics in remote African areas at or near worksites.
The clinics will provide drug treatments from trained medical staff and will be open to workers and family members suffering from HIV/AIDS, as well as to others suffering from HIV/AIDS in nearby communities.
"With national ICEM coordinators in place across Africa who have the knowledge and commitment on this deadly pandemic, we are in a position to step up this initiative to provide HIV/AIDS relief to people who most need it and have been the least likely to receive it," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs.
Higgs announced at the forum that the ICEM has received funding to employ an African Regional HIV/AIDS Project Coordinator.
The regional coordinators, in liaison with ICEM African affiliates, will now begin to approach global companies in their respective countries in order to commence negotiations for partnership agreements for the health care clinics.
Higgs said, "Trade unions across Africa already are playing major roles on the pandemic regarding education programmes and awareness-raising and behavioral-change campaigns among their members and the general public. What has been lacking is coordinated international action and a viable public health infrastructure, and we feel we are addressing that with this project."
The ICEM, with 425 affiliated unions in 121 countries, is strategically positioned for such a direct role in the HIV/AIDS fight because it not only represents chemical workers in the pharmaceutical industry at the major drug-producing firms, but also workers and family members hardest hit by the virus in mining, mineral extraction and energy sectors of the developing world.