In Depth back to UNI In Depth home page 04/12/2006 “Union Workplaces–Safer Workplaces! 28 April 2006 is International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured Workers Version francaise The slogan for this year’s 28 April is "Union Workplaces – Safer Workplaces" and the selected themes are a) Asbestos and the Global Union ‘Ban Asbestos’ Campaign, b) HIV/AIDS; workplace aspects and implementation of programme responses, and c) ILO Conventions and Instruments that relate to Occupational, Health and Safety, including those related to employment transition. On 28 April, we remember over 2 million workers who die, the more than 1.2 million who are injured, and the more than 160 million who fall ill each year due to unsafe, unhealthy, or unsustainable work and workplaces. Thirteen countries or territories have now formally recognised 28 April: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Taiwan. Anything you can do to encourage your country to join this list would contribute to our effort to have 28 April officially recognised by the United Nations. The 28 April Slogan: Union Workplaces - Safer Workplaces! “Union Workplaces- Safer Workplaces” was chosen as the slogan for 2006 to promote the idea that safe work and workplaces can only be ensured if workers are organised into trade unions, and if joint agreements between trade unions and employers provide meaningful occupational health and safety provisions as a guarantee of safe work and healthy workers. The three themes pick up issues of urgent concern to workers: asbestos, HIV-AIDS, and the use of ILO Conventions to promote safety, health and rights. In this way, 28 April connects with the spirit of May Day, and you are encouraged to link your activities to May 1st themes wherever possible. The right of all workers to form trade unions and bargain collectively with employers is crucial to securing safe workplaces; yet these rights are under attack in many countries. In 2004 alone, 145 workers were killed because of trade union activity, according to last year’s ICFTU Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations. In addition, the Survey documents over 700 violent attacks, and nearly 500 death threats, with trade unionists in many countries facing imprisonment, dismissal and discrimination, or encountering legal obstacles to union organising and collective bargaining. Millions of workers are denied their rights, and in the process, are denied health and safety on the job. 2006 Theme: HIV/AIDS - Workplace occurrence and solutions UNI has selected HIV/Aids as our theme for the 2006 action day. HIV/AIDS is a workplace issue for three main reasons: it impacts on the health, jobs and security of workers generally; it is an occupational risk for workers in health and security services; and the workplace is well adapted to contribute positively to prevention and care. ILO statistics show how the epidemic is concentrated among people in their working years, with direct implications for the labour force, their families and communities, enterprise productivity, and human resource development. This 28 April offers the opportunity to demonstrate the strengths and the flexibility of occupational safety and health structures at national and workplace levels by mainstreaming HIV/AIDS within the occupational health and safety activities of trade unions. Trade union campaigns and programmes on HIV/AIDS have emphasised the need to establish or strengthen joint health & safety committees as a precondition for meeting this pandemic head-on through sympathetic and effective workplace education, counselling and treatment. Recognition of HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue allows us to invoke the full weight of ILO Convention 155 for Occupational Safety and Health to support advocacy efforts. Access to public health services, affordable treatment and care, and the right to compensation are issues that workers with HIV/AIDS and their families have in common with all those remembered on 28 April. By including HIV/AIDS as a 28 April theme, trade unions will influence governments as employers and policy makers to provide services for its prevention, detection and treatment. 28 April focus on G8 Countries The Global Union Programme on HIV/AIDS is asking as many unions as possible to use 28 April HIV/AIDS activities to build support for our demand that the G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, U.S. and the U.K.) establish a permanent working party on HIV/AIDS at their next Summit in Russia, July 2006. Last July, G8 leaders called for a mechanism to ensure progress on development issues from one Summit to the next, including universal access to HIV treatment through strengthening health care capacity and reducing the price of drugs and testing. Therefore, the role of a permanent working group would be to monitor and evaluate progress on commitments made by the G8. UNI is asking all affiliates to send a letter to their government in support of a permanent G8 working group on HIV/AIDS. A sample letter is attached. The Global Unions Programme wants G8 countries to honour commitments to deal with the damage they admit HIV/AIDS have caused to health and education sectors, and to provide for a considerable increase in resources for health care workers and health services as a whole. Country profiles for HIV/AIDS were produced with the assistance of UNAIDS with the purpose, among others, to facilitate monitoring of the anticipated G8 committee by Global Unions. Activities that trade unions could plan, both prior to and on the day itself Connect the 28 April slogan with Trade Union Rights and May Day celebrations Mobilize workers to seek government and employer support of a total world ban of asbestos production and use; Promote action on HIV/AIDS as an OHS workplace-issue, and convince the next G8 Summit to establish a permanent working group on HIV/AIDS; and Convince governments to ratify key ILO OHS Instruments, and build support for the Workers’ Group at the ILO to negotiate a new promotional instrument for OHS next June. Reporting Your 28 April activities The success and continued growth of 28 April as International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers is totally dependent on reporting by trade unionists such as you. Please communicate directly with Lucien Royer at royer@tuac.org regarding the report of your activities or for any other information about 28 April. Information from each country or sector will then be periodically summarised and posted in a special country profile for 28 April 2006, which will be made available at: http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpH_3c.EN.pdf Links: Global Unions Guide: http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpH_3e.EN.pdf ILO: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/worldday/index.htm ______________________ Union Network International http://www.union-network.org - contact@union-network.org