National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:2 9/2/09 4:47 PM Page 6 RNs Help Shape Global HIV and AIDS Workplace Policies T his june, Zenei Triunfo-Cortez and I had the great honor and opportunity to participate as RNs in the International Labour Organization's (ILO) conference in Geneva, Switzerland to help shape global policy protections for workers with HIV and AIDS. CNA/NNOC was asked by the AFL-CIO to represent the American la bor movement at this important event. As the arm of the United Nations charged with promoting social justice and the fair treatment of workers, the ILO at this 98th session addressed many labor issues, such as protection of women's rights and the problem of child labor. Debate happens and decisions are made under what the ILO calls a "tripartite" structure, which refers to a system where workers, employers, and government representatives together form one document with one unified voice. These documents are then used as the universal standard for developing programs or initiatives. For example, if the state of Texas wanted to create a new HIV prevention program, it would turn to these ILO documents for guidance. I was invited to go to Geneva and become an advisor to the international workers group because of my more than a decade of experience working with people with HIV/AIDS. Zenei, as a member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents, is also an important nurse leader representing American nursing. It was a great honor for me to represent so many people: my country, my specialty in my profession of nursing at the CORE center [a Chicago HIV clinic], CNA/NNOC, and our larger affiliate – the AFL-CIO. The thought of representing so many groups both humbled and intimidated me. The voices in my head kept repeating, "Don't screw it up, Barrett!" As I flew across the Atlantic, I reviewed To read about the conference or the minutes of the HIV/AIDS committee, visit the ILO website at www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/ Officialmeetings/ilc/ILCSessions/ 98thSession/pr/lang—en/ docName—WCMS_108262/index.htm 6 REGISTERED NURSE what I had been briefed to expect, but none of the reading or discussions could have prepared me for the actual experience. The first day, jet lag or no, we at tended our first meeting of workers and later in the day we would meet in the tri partite setting to meet the em ployer and government representatives. At our initial meeting of workers, we met union representatives of day laborers, oil field workers, truck drivers, lawyers, and of course nurses and other healthcare workers. Our backgrounds, cultures, religion, and skin color all varied, but we shared the universal experience of advocating and fighting for the rights of workers. Our group was led by Jan (pronounced RNs Zenei Triunfo-Cortez and Kevin Barrett (rightmost) with Yan) Sithole from Swaziland, other delegates at the ILO conference in Switzerland. Africa. Chairman Sithole was an AIDS advocate for workers in the king- to establish heterosexual marriages for dom of Swaziland where they are governed socioeconomic reasons. Other countries mainly experienced by a king with 15 wives. This interesting fact foreshadowed that all of us would soon be modes of transmission through heterosexudeeply challenged and our perspectives al contact, mother to baby, IV drug use, sex broadened during our discussions and workers, and through the practice of wife debates about practices and cultures around inheritance. The practice of polygamy is not unheard of in the United States, but the the world. As we discussed the issues of HIV/AIDS unique difference in wife inheritance is that in our respective countries, we concluded it is not only condoned, but expected. If a that our modes of transmission varied by man has a brother who dies, it is the living country. The United States, Europe, and brother's responsibility to marry his widCanada have higher infection rates among owed sister-in-law, take in his nieces and sex workers, IV drug users, black women of nephews, raise them as his own, and bear new offspring with the sister-in-law – now child-bearing age, and gay men. Other countries were not as open about new wife. When asked if women, especially their problems with transmission between the husband's first wife, disagree with this gays. Many cultures and religions condemn practice, I was told by some of the African homosexuality. They deny that it exists in woman delegates that they financially rely their countries and initially were against on this practice. If their husbands should addressing gay men as a vulnerable popula- pass away, they prefer that some male famition that needed international protection of ly member inherit them instead of being their ability to work. The double stigma of without financial means to maintain their HIV/AIDS and homosexuality pushes many families. I learned the first day not to allow personal gay men deeper into the closet, forcing them W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 0 9

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