Working families of the union movement are deeply disturbed by the horrors of the HIV / AIDS pandemic, and believe that addressing this crisis – both at home and abroad – must be an immediate priority for our nation.
With more than 40 million people infected and over 25 million people dead, we are facing on of the worst crises of our times. More than twenty years into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has reached its highest level to date, showing our failure to defeat this dreaded disease.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is reversing decades of development and threatening economic and social prosperity worldwide. Anything less than a full force effort to rein in this disease is simply immoral in the face of such tremendous human suffering.
Women have been especially hard hit by HIV worldwide. Today, nearly 60 percent of the people living with HIV are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, the hardest hit region, 13.3 million women are infected with HIV. We know that in the United States, African American and Hispanic account for 80% of HIV/AIDS cases among women. Women’s limited access to formal education, literacy skills, income and power heighten their vulnerability to HIV and women who seek out effective protection and treatment are blamed and often denied support from their families. We need to break the vicious cycle of poverty, discrimination and disease that traps women infected with HIV/AIDS.
The global labor movement must work to protect the rights of all workers dealing with HIV and AIDS, and play a key role in our communities in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center supports partnerships between unions and committed employers to help workers living with HIV/AIDS stay on the job, earn a living and support their families. The AFL-CIO will continue to work in the US and globally to fight on the behalf of infected workers and their families.
On World AIDS Day 2004, under the banner of “Have you heard me today?” it is our obligation to respond to a crisis that claims the lives of working women and men everyday. Our nation needs an immediate response to the suffering of people dying from a preventable and treatable disease. History will prove that this is one of the single most important issues of our lifetime for social progress and basic human rights. Inaction is nothing less than shameful.
