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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM Paperworkers’ Union affiliate in Indonesia, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp dan Kertas (FSP2KI), 
conducted its Third National Meeting in Jakarta from 15-18 October, with generous support from Svenska Pappers, the Swedish Paperworkers Union. 
 
The six-year-old union, a federation of nine mill-level branch unions, identified future goals and objectives, and heard the parameters and expectations involved in a proposed three-year project sponsored by Pappers. Eleven executive-board members of FSP2KI attended, while four other delegates expected to attend from the Japanese-owned Marubeni pulp mill of Musi at PT Tanjunggenim Lestari in South Sumatra were detained by management and ordered to undertake military training near the mill. 
 
Besides a representative from Pappers, Mikke Sterbeck, other union guests included Bala Somahsundram from the Paper and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees’ Union of Malaysia (PPMEU), Alex Millar and Tim Woods of the Pulp and Paperworkers Branch of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU), Dave Schaub of the Communications, Paperworkers, and Energy (CEP) Union of Canada, and representation from the ICEM. 

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A featured speaker at the meetings was D. Patombong Saiful, President of the ICEM-affiliated Chemical, Energy, Mine, Gas Workers’ Union (FSP-KEP) of Indonesia. Brother Saiful gave an in-depth review of the Indonesian labour situation, specifically the difficulty to implement labour laws already in place and the problems brought on by flexible labour markets. 
 
Saiful said of 34 million workers in Indonesia, only five million are union members, with the number of labour federations – 93 – “too many,” and a definite need to consolidate. He said the world financial institutions have pushed for flexible labour markets, with the result being a rise in fixed-term contracts, subcontracting, and labour suppliers or agencies. 
 
The ICEM asked leaders of FSP2KI to join either one of two of the three labour confederations in Indonesia, and all pulp and paper guests at the meetings encouraged FSP2KI to further develop its internal structures and forge ties with other pulp and paper unions of Indonesia. The proposed Pappers project for 2010 to 2012 has established a goal of increasing the number of branch unions to 19, and growing the current 14,600 membership to 19,600. 
 
FSP2KI’s largest membership currently comes in Asia Pulp and Paper’s (APP) PT Pinto Deli mills in Karawang, APP’s PT Indah Kiat tissue mill in Tangerang, West Java, Asia Pacific Resources International’s (APRIL) PT Riau mills, the PT Lontar tissue mill in Jambi, Sumatra, and Marubeni’s mill in Kab. Muara Enim, South Sumatra.

FSP2KI Pulp/Paper Union in Indonesia Holds National Meeting

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The Global Labour University (GLU), together with the ILO, recently founded the International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD). The centre announced last week that it is offering 20 PhD scholarships for students from developing and transition countries. 
 
The ICDD is an interdisciplinary and international scientific network, with headquarters at the University of Kassel, Germany, which works with partner universities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ILO.jpg" width="98" height="91" alt=""/>
The PhD school will offer three areas of research: Sustainable Value Creation for Decent Work; Instruments for Promoting Decent Work; and Strategies of Empowerment for Decent Work. 
 
Applicants for the scholarships are encouraged to apply soon, with a deadline scheduled for 15 November 2009. The start date for the programme is 1 March 2010. 
 
Visit GLU’s website <a href="http://www.global-labour-univeristy.org">here</a>.  
 
Find more details, and the application form, visit the link <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/fileadmin/download/ICDD_Graduate_School_Call_for_Applications.pdf ">here</a>.

GLU’s Centre to Offer Decent Work PhD Scholarships

ICEM Women’s Bulletin No. 36/Boletín de noticias de las mujeres de ICEM No. 36

Organization 
 
 
 
Miners’ national federations will review their own structures and develop national, company, area and pit safety committees. 
 
 
 
As safety and health is not an issue that divides us, these committees should seek to work together at all levels. 
 
 
 
Such “union safety organization” can work to empower and revive the existing safety structures, including Workmens’ Inspectors, Pit Safety Committees and company safety committees, as appropriate, in the coal and non-coal mines. 
 
 
 
They can also work to mobilize support amongst miners and the masses for ratification of the convention through education, pit meetings, colony meetings (including meetings aimed at the families of miners), posters, stickers, handbills, wall painting, etc. 
 
 
 
A joint national campaign 
 
 
 
At national level, the federations could come together to agree for joint movement in mining industry to pressurize the Government of India to ratify C. 176 
 
 
 
The federations could hold joint company level conventions to popularize the demand for ratification of C 176. 
 
 
 
A joint delegation of the five federations should visit the Minister of labour to demand ratification of C 176. 
 
 
 
The federations should demand the convening of the next \national Conference on Safety in Mines, to discuss the issue of ratification of C 176. 
 
 
 
Signatures of 15 lakh mine workers and their families should be collected on a petition to demand ratification of C 176. 
 
 
 
The federations can also hold a demonstration before Parliament to submit the petition and meet the Lok Sabha speaker. 
 
 
 
Support 
 
 
 
The Federation shall seek assistance and help from National and Global trade unions and also from the ILO to organize campaign for the ratification of the ILO Convention 176.

Programme of action: “the stronger the union, the safer the mine!”

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As part of a SASK of Finland sponsored Sub-Sahara Africa project on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), the ICEM held a regional meeting on precarious work 2-3 November in Togo for trade unionists from nine different African countries attended. The main aim of the conference was to assess and discuss how the ICEM’s campaign has had an impact on solving some of the problems faced by millions of non-regular workers in the region. 
 
The region is no exception to the rule: CAL workers face many difficulties. Many of them are women and young workers. Typically, agency, temporary, and outsourced workers lose out in various areas, including salary levels, health and safety protections, as well as not receiving ordinary job benefits, vocational training, and job protection, and trade union rights. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FinlandSask2.jpg" width="179" height="71"/>
Especially in mining, with examples cited from Guinea, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leon, South Africa, and Togo, CAL problems appear to be chronic and shocking. But unionists also talked about CAL difficulties in other ICEM industrial sectors, including oil and gas, cement, and chemicals. There was a clear link for participants between the increased CAL problems and escalating investment on the continent by Chinese companies. 
 
The meeting also heard about a variety of success stories that have countered the worst abuses of precarious work. For example, several unions had organised previously unorganised CAL workers. Examples given – Guinea, Mauritius, Senegal, and Sierra Leone – were inspiring, with citations noted that workers of a few hundred at a time had been organised into trade unions. 
 
Sutids from Senegal is just one union that has managed to change hundreds of workers’ individual contracts into one giving permanent employment. This specific campaign topic was adopted by the union as part of the “ICEM national seminar project plan.” 
 
In Nigeria, ICEM oil and gas affiliates, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, report they now represent up to 60% of all CAL workers, admitting, however, that basic work conditions for these workers are still much lower than those of directly and permanently employed workers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911CALSSARO.jpg" width="120" height="80"/>
Actions by the ICEM Sub-Saharan Africa affiliates have not been limited to organising and collective bargaining. Several unions in Africa have also engaged their governments, seeking law changes. In South Africa, where the issue is a top political priority (see Ban on Labour Brokers, click <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3289-ICEM’s-Contract-Labour-Forum-in-Guinea-Forces-Expulsion-of-Russian-Mine-Boss" type="internal">here</a>), labour brokers were said to receive 50-to-60% of the fees they charge companies for their own “service fees,” thus taking much directly from the pockets of agency workers themselves. 
 
Reportedly, for a number of labour brokers, having an office means having a laptop and an automobile. In Namibia, the law already bans labour brokers and, in Sierra Leone, the government agreed to review the country’s labour laws after a campaign by the United Mineworkers’ Union (UMU). That review looked specifically at ending CAL abuses there, another result of a national plan adopted at an ICEM-CAL seminar. 
 
In Guinea, the government decided to start a process to review all mining contracts in the country after the ICEM-CAL seminar there last spring. Guinea’s Labour Minister has also started the process of preventing sham subcontracting companies from operating in the country, which in some cases are owned by managers of primary employers, including human resources managers. A recent victory (see Guinea Forces Expulsion of Russian Mine Boss, click here) came despite the country being at high risk due to the current political situation. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911CALSeminar.jpg" width="180" height="100"/>
Regretfully, good laws are often not respected, with Nigeria and Senegal serving as examples. This has led the ICEM CAL Campaign to emphasize – quite successfully in Mozambique – to trade unions that they engage governments to embark on labour inspections. Cooperation between the unions and the labour inspectorate was a main topic at the national CAL seminar in Mozambique. 
 
Unions are also examining their internal rules and structures, in efforts to attract more precarious workers into their ranks. In Mauritius, for example, Sindicatravayer offers membership to CAL workers for a symbolic 1 rupee (instead of 50). The union extended existing collective agreements to also cover contract and agency workers. The union furthermore won, in certain sectors, an extra payment of one day’s salary per month for temporary workers. That money goes into a fund, making sure that also CAL workers at the end of their contract get a dismissal fee. Sutids from Senegal helps precarious workers with easier access to medical care and legal assistance. 
 
There has been much progress in ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Region, but the many problems still outweigh these important steps forward. Sadly, the progress itself is also precarious in some cases. 
 
Workers in Mauritius are facing a different, new “precarious” problem after the country’s government, in February 2009, decided to change the labour law, turning virtually every worker into a “contractual.” This new law removes obligations to pay dismissal fees. At the same time, it also makes it possible to dismiss any worker at any time without good reason. 
 
Many participants in the ICEM-SASK seminar in Togo reported on the fact that the more successful CAL activities in their respective countries took off after, and as a result of, ICEM project seminars in the different countries. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911JosephToe.jpg" width="100" height="123"/>
ICEM Project Coordinator, Joseph Toe
The person most responsible for that has been ICEM’s project coordinator, Joseph Toe. He, while organising the CAL seminars for the ICEM affiliates, almost invariably manages to get the respective country’s Minister of Labour, or a high-ranking representative from that office, at CAL conferences. 
 
This was also the case at the most recent 2-3 November regional seminar, which was opened by Togo’s Labour Minister, Mr. Broohm Octave Nicoue. The fact that Toe has succeeded in such organizing has improved access on the political level, and coupled with this high-level political participation, is the reason behind a number of the successes in the region.

Action on CAL Evident as ICEM African Affiliates Tackle Irregular Work

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Third Congress of Sindicato Nacional dos Papeleiros (SINAP), the ICEM pulp and paper union affiliate that is part of CNQ/CUT in Brazil, made great strides on gender equity over the weekend, including passage of a host of resolutions that clearly marks this union as the trend-setter in Latin America regarding involvement of women in all aspects of national and local branch work. 
 
Some 132 delegates from 20 local branches attended the benchmarking Congress, held in São Sebastião, São Paulo state, from 26-29 November. The Congress also saw a changing of the guard, with SINAP founder and President Iduigues Martins stepping down due to term limits and bring replaced by Carlos Monteiro, SINAP’s international officer who has led a union branch in Bahia state. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.sinap.monteiro.jpg" width="200" height="150"/>
New SINAP President Carlos Monteiro speaks to Congress. At right, Outgoing President Iduigues Martins 
Martins has provided the union with steady and reliable leadership for the better part of ten years, growing the union with assistance from pulp and paper unions in Canada, Sweden, and Finland. He will remain on the Executive Committee of the union. 
 
The Congress elected “Caco” Claudecir Lopes Vargas to serve as Vice President. He is from the local branch of SINAP workers at Otacilio Costa in Santa Catalina state. 
 
But the story of the Congress was the progressive corner turned mandating enhanced and immediate gender equity inside the union. The Congress passed no fewer than seven resolutions mandating such, including one motion that called for SINAP to strive for at least 30% women involvement in all structures, both national and local branches. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.sinap.women.jpg" width="118" height="207"/>
Women's rights Won the Day 
The Congress created a national gender committee, to be composed of one woman from each of the SINAP’s 20 branches. A resolution was enacted mandating that women would serve on local branch bargaining committees. 
 
Another called for a fight for more community maternity centres and day-care facilities for children. And yet another called on the publication of a gender primer for use inside SINAP, as well changes in all union print and statutory materials to make then gender neutral. 
 
Of further significance, and again a milestone for any Latin-based trade union, the committee’s name that brought forward these motions was called the “Gender and LGBT Committee,” or lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans-sexual. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.sinap.jouko.jpg" width="256" height="192"/>
Finnish Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen 
Perhaps the most emotionally debated resolution came on the Congress’s final day, yesterday, 29 November. That was a motion for SINAP not to endorse racial quotas in Brazilian society. The motion was narrowly defeated, thus putting the union firmly on record in support of racial equality in Brazil. 
 
The SINAP Congress also moved to create a minimum national wage for paperworkers in the country. 
 
SINAP’s Third Congress was attended by several international guests, who pledged their continued support and solidarity, including Jouko Ahonen, President of Paperiliitto of Finland and chairman of ICEM’s Pulp and Paper Sector; Dave Coles, President of the Canadian Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, and Joe Gargiso, Administrative Vice President of CEP from Quebec; Walter Silva, President of the CUOPyC Pulp and Paper Federation of Uruguay; Patrick Bauret of French CGT-FILPAC; and Mikke Sterbeck of Pappers Union in Sweden.

SINAP Congress in Brazil Charts New Path with Gender Initiatives

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Through a series of meetings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 21 to 24 November, ICEM affiliated unions in Brazil explored the possibilities of engaging in (much) more social dialogue in their country. The meetings came at the end of a sequence of activities, organised this year as part of the ICEM Brazilian social dialogue project, which is funded by SASK Finland and LO-TCO Sweden, and supported, including through active participation in the meetings last week, by ICEM affiliates in these countries (IFMetall and Pappers from Sweden, and Kemianliitto and Toimihenkilöunioni from Finland). 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911Brazil1.jpg" width="234" height="176"/>
As a way of dealing with labour relations, social dialogue is not very well developed at all in the ICEM sectors in Brazil, and even that may be an understatement. That said, going over the potential advantages of having a regular union-company dialogue outside of the bargaining period, all participants, including from the employers’ side (with employer representatives present from Petrobras, Braskem and Akzo Nobel), voiced support for the initiative to be explored further. Currently, in the often rather confrontational Brazilian union-employer relations, unions and companies tend to only schedule discussions at the time of the yearly collective bargaining negotiation sessions. 
 
During the one-day joint employers-unions conference on 23 November, where “sustainable development” was the leading theme, there was general agreement that it would be to the advantage of both parties to sit down around the table on a regular basis and discuss specific issues. These “social dialogue topics” would, certainly in the earlier phases of the dialogue processes, mainly include the lesser antagonistic priorities, i.e. those where both employers and unions would have a similar interest, ranging from such issues as health and safety or sustainability over the problems of young or women workers to the issue of social dialogue itself. At the same time, all parties also agreed that it may take a bit of time before there is enough trust for this dialogue to deliver spectacular results. 
 
One particular suggestion that is going to be followed up on by the unions in Brazil is to see if more companies - many of whom did show an interest, but were not present at the meeting for various reasons - can be brought into a regular dialogue via existing Brazilian employers’ organisations. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911EliasPintado.jpg" width="123" height="130"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911SergioNovais.jpg" width="119" height="130"/>
Elias Pintado and Sergio Novais
Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President for Latin America, ran the meeting, together with Elias Pintado, Coordinator of the Brazil Social Dialogue project.

Promising Potential for Social Dialogue in Brazil

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ICEM led a workshop for women from ICEM affiliates in Erbil, Iraq, from 17 to 19 November. The workshop was supported entirely by the US Solidarity Center. Hashmeya Muhssin from the Basra Electricity Workers’ Union and ICEM Executive Member was instrumental in organizing the meeting. The women who participated in the meeting were all highly educated. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911.iraq.women.JPG" width="277" height="207"/>
The meeting focused on violence issues, since that was felt to be the most crucial issue facing women today in Iraq. Self-esteem is one critical area in building women’s confidence to participate in trade unions. Women need to build their self-esteem and confidence in order to become better leaders. Violence in all its forms was condemned – violence against women is not cultural. It is criminal. The women acted out role plays on violence in the family, at work, and in society. Women in armed conflict is another issue that has to be looked at, as women bear arms and are victims of those bearing arms. The women brought examples of Iraqi women role models that they admire. These included Dr Naziha Al-Dulaimy who was the first government minister in the Middle East in the 50’s. When it is said that Iraqi women are not participating recently as much as they used to, the explanation can be found in the Iraq-Iran war and the sanctions imposed on the country until 2003, followed by war since then. The problem is that without security, women cannot prosper. It was agreed that women need to go out to work in order to be financially independent and to take their own decisions. 
 
Examples were given of women’s organizations, in particular Kurdish women’s associations, who fight for legal reforms, provide shelter for the homeless and threatened, train the jobless and help the poor and ill. 
 
Hashmeya has been standing up for women as well as for men in Basra and is working to launch a campaign for social security. A lot of work still needs to be done to clean up the remains from the Iran-Iraq war, as well as provide environmental and community sanitation. This work will continue in connection with the elections scheduled in Iraq for 2010. 
 
The women left the meeting feeling empowered. “A bird cannot fly with one wing.”

ICEM Iraqi Women's Workshop Meets in Erbil

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With a negotiated settlement between ICEM-affiliated Ghana Mine Workers’ Union (GMWU) and AngloGold Ashanti occurring early this month, negotiations in the gold mining sector of Ghana came to a successful conclusion. 
 
Earlier, the country’s labour commission issued a mediated settlement between GMWU and 2,100 miners of Goldfields, while Ghana’s third major gold producer, US-based Newmont Mining, reached satisfactory terms with the union in October. 
 
Three-year collective agreements for some 10,000 miners, retroactive to 1 July 2009, are now in place in Ghana, ending the threat of more strikes and labour discord that marked labour relations in the country’s gold sector in third quarter 2009. (See InBrief No. 140 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3398-Ghana-Miners’-Escalate-Pay-Dispute-with-Gold-Producers" type="internal">here</a>.) 
At AngloGold where 5,000 staff are employed at three mines, GMWU agreed to a 12% increase in 2009, and 10% salary adjustments in both 2010 and 2011. The union also won improvements in rent allowances pertaining to on-site housing, and won guarantees to review the union-management Provident Fund scheme and to align it more closely with the National Pension scheme. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GhanaFlag.gif" width="140" height="94" alt=""/>
The GMWU has worked to enhance efficiencies and lower operating costs at AngloGold’s Obuasi and Iduapriem mines, and that work will continue under terms of the new agreement. The Johannesburg-based mining house, the world’s third largest gold producer, said the cost of gold production at Obuasi has decreased by US$150 per once to US$671 per once in third quarter 2009, and that cost is expected to be go even lower in the next three years with cooperation from GMWU. 
 
GMWU General Secretary Prince William Ankrah called the new accord “historic,” stating it “places the human equation at the centre of corporate thinking.” 
 
Ankrah also said the issue of pay disparity between expatriate workers and Ghana miners will continue to be a point of discussion with AngloGold Ashanti. 
 
At Goldfields, a government arbitration panel determined that a 13.5% increase be granted to miners. The agreement with Newmont was reached with less discord, primarily because the company did not attempt to link the shrinking US dollar to salary adjustments. Pay talks for miners at Newmont will be again be addresses in the first half of 2010. 
 
With 2009 salary negotiations now complete with the major mining houses, GMWU will now turn attention to signing new accords with smaller companies and mining contractors.

2009 Gold Mining Talks Finally Conclude in Ghana

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the HIV/AIDS workshops in Trinidad and Tobago and in Ethiopia, and inform on the Global Fund approvals for Round 9, as well as on the 2009 Epidemic Update. 
 
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 <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
World AIDS Day 
 
In his statement on World AIDS Day, 1 December, the ICEM General Secretary focused on the “I AM” theme, with the key slogans: “I am accepted; I am safe; I am getting treatment; I am well and I am living my rights”. “Our approach is also rights-based – we never forget that our first responsibility is to protect the rights, health and livelihoods of our members, their families and the wider community”, he stated. “Above all, we have to advocate Know-Your-Status campaigns for voluntary counselling and testing. If for every two people who go on antiretroviral treatment five more are newly infected, then we know that prevention must be the focus of our HIV/AIDS work”. 
 
The ILO contributed to the “I AM” theme with the slogan “I am living my rights. I am working.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
World AIDS Day: HIV/AIDS Workshop in Trinidad and Tobago 
 
The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, with the support from the Humanity Fund of the ICEM Canadian affiliate, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), organised the opening of their HIV/AIDS workshop for OWTU General Council members to coincide with World AIDS Day, 1 December. 
 
Speaking at the opening, OWTU President General Comrade Ancil Roget emphasised the importance of fighting HIV/AIDS at the workplace. He highlighted that the World AIDS Campaign and World AIDS Day are about understanding that access to prevention, care and treatment is for ALL, not just for some. He also reminded the participants that high HIV infections are a manifestation of the deeper social and political crisis we are in and we cannot ignore the fact that poverty, inequality and social injustice make people more vulnerable to HIV. He pledged that his union, in line with the World AIDS Day slogan, will keep the promise to stop HIV/AIDS and protect the rights of workers living with HIV. 
 
Carol Ann Senah, Technical Director of the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC), pointed out that the infection does not just hitch rides with truck drivers on lonely highways; it also travels business class with men in dark suits. The number of people living with HIV and AIDS has gone up from 14,000 to 20,000 in a short time. With the productive workforce, the age group 15-49 years hardest hit, the workplace must be an enabling environment to fight the pandemic. She called on everybody to be tested on national testing day, 4 December. 
 
During the three-day workshop, some 45 participants discussed behaviour change, preventing HIV transmission, negotiating on HIV and AIDS and they elaborated the elements of an HIV/AIDS workplace policy on the basis of a presentation by Hans Schwass, the ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant and the OWTU’s own HIV/AIDS policy presented by Executive Officers, Comrades Chandersain Ramsingh & Sati Gajadar-Innis, which was adopted in June 2009. Their work in groups was also informed by the excellent presentation of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work by the regional ILO HIV/AIDS specialist, Madhuri Supersad. 
 
Participants came up with many ideas for HIV/AIDS activities at their workplace and within their communities to be organised within the next six months and to be reviewed and further carried forward at an HIV/AIDS workshop in 2010. 
 
One of the highlights of the workshop was the participation in a mixed performance of pantomime, music and testimonies of people living with HIV, which addressed stigma and discrimination. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
HIV/AIDS Workshops in Ethiopia 
 
In two consecutive workshops in Addis Ababa in November, stakeholders advanced the LO/FTF-sponsored HIV/AIDS project in cooperation with the ICEM and its affiliate, the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical and Mine Trade Unions (NIFECM). 
 
In the first workshop, officials revisited the NIFECM HIV/AIDS Policy which was adopted by Congress in August and the excellent leaflet which was produced in Ethiopia. They also reviewed and selected materials which should go into a toolbox for peer educators. 
 
A larger group of 20 participants, of whom 9 were women, with unionists from the basic unions discussed strategies to negotiate on HIV/AIDS, elaborated an HIV/AIDS workplace policy, acquired campaigning skills and brainstormed campaigning ideas. 
 
The Project Advisory Committee with participation from NIFECM, the LO/FTF and ICEM also met on the occasion. Priorities for the next few months are the training of peer educators and the starting of awareness and prevention campaigns in mining localities, as well as training on bargaining skills. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation Receives ILO Certificate, Organises Peer Educators Training for Women and Commemorates World AIDS Day 
 
On behalf of the INMF, its General Secretary B.K. Das received a certificate from the ILO Delhi Office in recognition of the contribution made to the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the world of work through the successful implementation of the HIV/AIDS Project sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and the ICEM. 
 
In September, the Federation organised a training course for women to become HIV/AIDS peer educators. Peer educators courses held so far have shown a low participation by women, due to strong cultural barriers. Yet the potential of women and their involvement with families and the community has to be harnessed to fight HIV and AIDS. 
 
On World AIDS Day, 1 December, master trainers and peer educators, trained by the HIV/AIDS project, organised meetings, symposiums and rallies in major coalfields. The programmes did not only involve workers but also reached out to local authorities, teachers and students of schools and colleges, non-governmental organisations and organisations of people living with HIV. The HIV/AIDS project provided campaign materials for the events. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Global Fund Board Approves 85 Grants in Round 9 
 
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, meeting in Addis Ababa from 9-11 November, approved 85 grants (out of 159 proposals received) worth almost USD 2 billion over the first two years for the three diseases. 54 grants received immediate approval, whereas 31 were approved in principle, subject to funding becoming available. 
 
Of the total amount, 44 percent are for HIV/AIDS grants. TB and malaria grants received 28 percent each. Of the grants approved, Africa (East, Southern, West and Central) will receive 56 percent. 
 
Subject to confirmation by the Board meeting in April 2010, Round 10 will be launched at the start of May 2010. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 110 of 12 November. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (<a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>); to receive GFO send an email to 
<a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 

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2009 AIDS Epidemic Update: New HIV Infections Down 
 
New infections in 2008 were 30 percent lower than they were 12 years ago, according to data released by UNAIDS and the WHO. The 2009 Epidemic Update, available at <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>, confirms a trend first observed about two years ago. 
 
UNAIDS and WHO state that the spread of HIV appears to have peaked in 1996. An estimated 2.7 million new infections occurred in 2008, the same number as in 2007, but well below the estimated 3.5 million new infections in 1996. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most heavily affected region, accounting for 71 percent of all new HIV infections in 2008. According to the report, there seems to be evidence that the declines are due to HIV prevention measures. 
 
However, the number of people living with HIV continues to grow. In December 2008, an estimated 33.4 million people were living with HIV, compared to 33.0 million in 2007. The reason that this number continues to grow while new infections are levelling off is that HIV-positive people are living longer, due in large part to expanded antiretroviral (AARV) coverage. The percentage of those needing ARV treatment who actually receive it rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2008 or 4 million. That also means that over half of those in need of treatment or about 5 million people are still not receiving it. AIDS-related deaths in 2008 amounted to 2 million. 

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President Zuma Addresses the Nation on World AIDS Day 
 
In a national address on World AIDS Day, South African President Jacob Zuma declared that drug therapy for HIV-positive women and babies would be broadened and start earlier. 
 
The new policy on pregnant women, aimed at ensuring that babies are born healthy, is in line with the new treatment guidelines issued by the WHO just a day before. This new policy and extended access to antiretroviral drugs gives substance to Zuma’s break with the views of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who during almost a decade in office had questioned whether HIV causes AIDS. It is estimated that delays during this decade caused the death of 35,000 babies and that 330,000 people died prematurely for lack of treatment. 
 
With more people being HIV positive than in any other country, Zuma called on South Africans to struggle against AIDS as they had against apartheid. 
 
(Source: Right Vision News, 4 December) 
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News from Global Union Federations 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports in its HIV/AIDS Updates 75 and 76, 1 and 15 November, on the opening of an HIV/AIDS drop-in centre on the Indian-Nepalese border which is designed to reach out to those working on the 2000 trucks that cross the border every day. It further reports on the private sector workshop held in Ghana which focused on the role of the private sector in Global Fund processes. It also informs on preparations for the 18th International AIDS Conference to be held in Vienna from 18-23 July 2010. 

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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 51, December 2009

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