Oral

Globally, the labor movement represents millions of workers. For more than a century, labor and public health advocates in the United States have mobilized to improve the health of workers and their families. For the major global health issues of our times—AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, family health, and others—the labor movement’s contributions and potential remain strong. Yet, for many public health professionals and decision makers, the labor movement’s involvement in global health is less widely known. This is the case even though workers, their families, and communities are often the intended beneficiaries of health projects; wages, benefits, and workplace conditions have a direct impact on overall health and access to health resources; and workplaces and union structures provide excellent opportunities to directly educate and provide health services to large numbers of workers and their families. Through a facilitated dialogue with three trade unionists from South Africa, Nigeria, and Uganda who possess direct AIDS project experience with unions, and with an executive from the Association of Flight Attendants and the executive director of the Solidarity Center, the value, experience, perspective, and potential of the labor movement to respond to global health issues will be examined. The Solidarity Center is a nongovernmental organization that works in 60 countries and is an allied organization of the AFL-CIO, the national labor federation that represents 10 million American workers. The Solidarity Center provides support to trade union partners throughout the world, including to AIDS projects in South Africa, Nigeria, and Uganda.

Session Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to: 1) Recognize how the labor movement’s access and relationship with workers and their families uniquely positions trade unions to address global health issues. 2) Describe the labor movement’s potential and practical contributions to global health issues. 3)Link with trade union resources for partnering on global health initiatives.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing