In South Africa, the Solidarity Center and its union partners address the interrelated issues of strategic research, collective bargaining, economic policy, gender equality, capacity building, and organizing.
Although South Africa is in its second decade of democracy, economic and social problems threaten its democratic stability and economic growth. These problems have exacerbated the devastation wrought by HIV/AIDS. Almost half of all deaths in South Africa, and a staggering 71 percent of deaths among those aged 15 to 49, are thought to be caused by AIDS, and the average life expectancy is only 54 years. By 2015, South Africa will have lost nearly 21 million workers to AIDS.
The Solidarity Center’s program in South Africa aims to improve the lives of working people, the poor, and the communities in which they reside. Our strongest partner is the1.8-million-member Congress of South African Trade Unions, which represents 22 affiliate unions. COSATU’s progressive economic, political, and social agenda is driven by its highly focused activism and its widely recognized positions against xenophobia, increased food and gas prices, and human and worker rights abuses in neighboring Zimbabwe. In addition, the Solidarity Center works with South African unions to ensure that HIV/AIDS issues remain at the forefront of every workplace contract negotiation, policy, and practice.
Combating HIV/AIDS in Africa: Changing Behavior with Worksite Education and Testing. The Solidarity Center is working in partnership with the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, an industrial affiliate of the country's largest union Federation COSATU, to train and provide free HIV/AIDS testing and counseling to several thousand manufacturing workers a year. Cross-posted from
Border Jumpers: Blog of Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg as they travel in Africa
South African Union Ties HIV/AIDS to Bargaining. The Solidarity Center’s partnerships with South African unions ensure that HIV/AIDS issues remain at the forefront of every workplace contract negotiation, policy, and practice.
Interview with Dr. Feroza Mansoor. Dr. Feroza Mansoor is the national director of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) AIDS project.
In Swaziland and Lesotho, Workers Fight HIV/AIDS on the Shop Floor. In 2005, the Solidarity Center launched an HIV/AIDS education program for garment workers in Swaziland and Lesotho, where HIV prevalence among women of working age is among the highest in the world. Kuki Ndlovu, a Solidarity Center project coordinator from Durban, South Africa, implemented the program. Ndlovu is a nurse, a union member and advocate, and a gender trainer.
Teachers Caring for Teachers in South Africa. In South Africa, the Solidarity Center has trained nearly 10,000 teachers as HIV/AIDS peer educators. An estimated 4,000 South African teachers died in 2004 of AIDS-related complications, and 12.7 percent are HIV-positive, according to a recent study.
South African, U.S. Teachers Unite Against HIV/AIDS. A nearly $4 million Solidarity Center program teams South Africa’s teachers’ unions and the American Federation of Teachers in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Breakthrough for Africa Telecom Workers. Leaders of four communications unions in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa signed a groundbreaking resolution to cooperate on common concerns in order to organize workers in multinational telecom companies across Africa.
Southern Africa Exchange Program (May 2005). North Carolina AFL-CIO President James Andrews said that his experience had changed the way he sees the world.
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