AFT Public Employees delegates took the initiative to address two serious global issues--HIV/AIDS and child labor--at the 27th World Congress of Public Services International (PSI). Delegates overwhelmingly ratified a resolution jointly submitted to the World Congress by AFT Public Employees and Canada's National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) calling for all PSI-affiliated unions "to make the issue of AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa a priority in all international solidarity efforts." Delegates agreed that unions must seek greater resources from governments and the international community for medical assistance and HIV/AIDS prevention programs, as well as changes to global patent rules and the use of generic HIV/AIDS drugs in sub-Sahara Africa, where 70 percent of the 36 million people infected with HIV/AIDS live.

"AIDS is the greatest public health threat in human history," Lee Jackson, president of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, told delegates. "There have been more deaths from AIDS than from all the wars of the 20th century."

Jackson told the gathering of international unionists, which included delegates from South Africa and Namibia, about the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign. Through this campaign, the AFT provides technical support and training to African unions, which distribute materials and teach classroom teachers how to use a curriculum that identifies the cultural, professional and behavioral changes required to stop the spread of HIV.

"We know that African unions cannot conquer this pandemic alone," Jackson said. "AIDS is not just a health issue, it is a human rights issue and a union issue."
 

PSI denounces child labor

PSI unions also embraced a resolution against child labor proposed by AFT Public Employees. Speaking to the resolution, Betty Vines, president of the Kansas Association of Public Employees, said, "As trade unionists and consumers, we must demand that manufacturers and importers monitor child labor and other worker rights violations and improve the conditions under which products are made."

The resolution updates PSI's 1997 resolution declaring the federation's collective intent to work for the complete eradication of child labor. Vines said that 246 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are child laborers--179 million are exposed to work that endangers their physical, mental or moral well-being, and 8.4 million are in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other "horrific forms of forced labor," including prostitution, pornography, drug smuggling and militia.

Vines noted that 125 million children ages 6 to 14 have never attended school, and that two-thirds of these children are girls. "Universal public education is the best hope for children to escape the cycle of poverty that has trapped their families for generations," Vines said.

Delegates approved two amendments to the resolution. The first called for ethical purchasing policies in the public sector; the second called for a total boycott of commodities that are manufactured by companies employing child labor.