Why AIDS is an issue for all workers

THE leading role that unions have played in supporting and advocating for people with HIV/AIDS, and in preventing the spread of the virus, will be discussed at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne tomorrow.

When AIDS first emerged as an epidemic in Australia in the early-1980s, unions were quick to respond with action in workplaces and the community to support those who had the disease, including active campaigning to prevent discrimination of not only the ill, but gay men, Africans and people who worked in the AIDS healthcare sector.

As drug treatment and better awareness of the risks of exposure to transmission of HIV and AIDS reduced their prevalence to manageable proportions, Australian unions have focused on supporting international efforts to prevent its spread, particularly in developing nations.

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, the overseas aid arm of the ACTU, has been at the forefront of these efforts, and has run projects in Vietnam, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

‘Positive@Work: Unions campaigning on HIV around the globe’ will be part of the Global Village Workshop series at the International AIDS Conference on Thursday.
Unions’ ‘heroic role’
By far the largest conference on HIV-related issues, the biennial International AIDS Conference in Melbourne began on Sunday.

About 14,000 delegates from 200 countries are attending the conference, including policymakers, health workers, scientific and medical researchers, people living with HIV and others committed to ending the epidemic.

The ‘Positive@Work’ session will be chaired by Ken Davis, international programs manager at Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA.

He says the role of unions in the early days of HIV/AIDS in Australia in the mid-1980s was “pretty heroic”.

“The adoption by the ACTU of anti-discrimination policies in 1985 was incredibly important in Australia,” he says.

“Essentially the ACTU adopted a policy that HIV was an issue for workers, that unions should play a role in educating their members and preventing transmission.”

Mr Davis says public sector unions, such as those in education, healthcare and public transport, were the first to have members diagnosed as HIV positive, and the pre-existing union networks were rapidly mobilised to provide support for the sick.

The adoption of an official anti-discrimination policy by the ACTU in 1985 was an important step in ensuring that people living with HIV/AIDS were able to continue to have fulfilling working lives and access to public healthcare, affordable housing, social security and other services.

Equally important in that era was to prevent discrimination against gay people, and people who worked in the HIV/AIDS sector such as nurses.

Mr Davis said the Plumbers Union and the CFMEU were “extraordinary” in developing education about HIV/AIDS for their members, and driving a community response.
A global problem
Today, HIV/AIDS is manageable in Australia, but globally there are 35 million people living with the disease.

Over the years, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has run HIV/AIDS-related programs in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

In South Africa alone there are 5 million people — including 300,000 union members — living with HIV, and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has worked very closely with unions in southern Africa for many years on education, care and support programs, alongside campaigning for access to affordable treatments.

Other overseas work includes a project to integrate people living with HIV into the workforce in Vietnam, education on HIV/AIDS prevention for overseas Filipino workers, organising sex workers and providing support to HIV-positive workers in Cambodia, and developing an ‘HIV in the Workplace’ toolkit for unions in Papua New Guinea.

The Positive@Work forum will discuss how the union movement has historically worked with the HIV movement in confronting discrimination and securing employment-related entitlements, and how they can build new strategies and alliances for social change.

Alongside Mr Davis will be international speakers will be Nikki Soboil from the South Africa Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union, Alice Ouedraogo from the International Labour Organisation, and Salvatore Marra from the Confederazione Generale Italiano del Lavoro.

Harvey Purse from the Australian Services Union will talk about how unions have fought discrimination in Australia, and Bill O’Loughlin, former president of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations will discuss synergies between unions, civil society and HIV organisations.

The session, from 2.30pm to 3.30pm in the Clarendon Room at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, is free and open to the public.