INT’L LABOUR DAY-CHILE: Tackling the Challenge of AIDS

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Apr 30 2005 (IPS) - Chile’s Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) trade union federation has launched a campaign aimed at the prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, based on the philosophy that the labour movement should also take on emerging challenges, such as awareness-raising and education on health issues.

CUT, the largest labour federation in this country of 15.6 million, officially kicked off the campaign on Thursday, in the midst of preparations for the demonstrations it is organising to commemorate May Day, or International Labour Day, this Sunday.

There are currently around 6,000 people with full-blown AIDS in Chile, double the total reported just five years ago. Most of the people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are active members of the labour force, for whom the disease implies “an even greater deterioration in employment conditions and quality of life for both them and their families,” commented trade unionist Luis Gautier.

The rise in the number of Chileans with HIV/AIDS constitutes a “social drama” for workers, said María Rozas, the vice president of CUT and secretary of the labour federation’s Women’s Department.

Rozas, formerly a lawmaker from the co-governing Christian Democracy Party, told IPS that the “feminisation of AIDS” entailed by the increased incidence of the disease among women represents yet another obstacle to women’s access to jobs.

There are 12,000 reported cases of HIV infection in Chile, although it is estimated that the true number is closer to 32,000. The spread of the virus among women increased by an average of 4.7 percent annually between 1998 and 2003, as compared to three percent among men during the same period.

Women now account for 20 percent of the HIV-positive people in the country, and a large proportion of them were infected by their husbands.

In light of this situation, one of the key focuses of the new CUT initiative is the promotion of sexual responsibility, which “must be assumed by male and female workers alike,” stressed Rozas.

The campaign, developed in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, includes the installation of condom dispensers at CUT’s central headquarters and the offices of trade union locals, as well as the distribution of educational material on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

CUT president Arturo Martínez, a member of the co-governing Socialist Party, said the federation is striving to more effectively incorporate these and other emerging issues in its policies.

“Health is a fundamental concern for everyone, and information and education are responsibilities that the labour movement should begin to assume without complexes or taboos of any kind,” he added.

CUT, founded in 1953 as the Central Unica de Trabajadores, grew to one million-strong before it was outlawed under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Reestablished as the Central Unitaria upon Chile’s return to democracy, it currently has some 350,000 members.

Opening up to so-called emerging issues is a crucial challenge for trade union organisations in this country, where the proportion of unionised workers fell from 29.3 percent of the active labour force in 1998 to 21.4 percent in 2002, according to official statistics.

In 2004, the centre-left government of President Ricardo Lagos passed a law to guarantee the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and establish penalties for discrimination against those infected with the virus, particularly with regard to their access to employment.

Among other measures, the law specifically prohibits employers from requiring job applicants to submit to an HIV/AIDS test, and guarantees the confidentiality of the results of any tests that are carried out.

Nevertheless, violations continue to take place. On Apr. 25, it was reported that banking institutions in Punta Arenas, 2,500 km south of Santiago, include an AIDS test among the application requirements for mortgages of 120,000 dollars or higher.

Vasily Deliyanis, the civic rights coordinator of Vivo Positivo – a non-governmental organisation devoted to defending the rights of people with HIV/AIDS – noted that the banks justify this procedure by claiming that they are simply complying with the demands of the insurance companies that back the home loans.

For most Chileans, the only way it is possible to buy a home is by taking out a mortgage.

CUT’s campaign for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STDs is also a contribution to the worldwide efforts to promote “decent employment”, an initiative put forward by the International Labour Organisation to foster working conditions that improve the quality of life, noted Rozas.

The trade unionist pointed out that the theme of the next Summit of the Americas, which will bring together the leaders of all of the countries of the hemisphere except Cuba in November in the Argentine resort town of Mar del Plata, is “Creating Jobs to Confront Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance.”

Safeguarding health and curbing epidemics like AIDS is an essential component of the fight against poverty, according to the Chilean labour federation.

Patricia, 38, is HIV-positive and receives medical care and psychological counselling through Vivo Positivo. She told IPS that she was infected with the virus 10 years ago by her husband, who died in 1998 and left her a widow with three children.

Patricia applied for a job at a shoe factory, but the owner demanded that she submit to an AIDS test. She lost out on two other jobs for the same reason, until Vivo Positivo found her employment as a cleaner at a non-governmental organisation.

“The campaign launched by CUT is very important and necessary. My life would have turned out differently if my husband had learned in time about this thing called sexual responsibility,” she said.