On the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) pledges to boost efforts to strengthen accountability by Canada and other G8 countries for promises they continue to make on HIV/AIDS.

December 1, 2008 -PSAC urges federal government to invest in prevention and support harm reduction.

December 1, 2008 will mark the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Over 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS around the world, including more than 58,000 people in Canada. Every two hours, someone in Canada becomes infected with HIV and 27 per cent of infected people don't know they have the disease.

“Lead – Empower - Deliver” highlights the leadership theme for the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day on 1 December, 2008. Increasingly, public services trade unions are taking the lead in responding to HIV & AIDS. Workers are being empowered to negotiate their workplace rights. Stigma and discrimination in the workplace and community is being challenged. And workers are demanding access to treatment, prevention and care services

For Immediate Release 1 December 2008 -Statement by Randi Weingarten, President,
American Federation of Teachers, On World AIDS Day 2008

WASHINGTON- For two decades now, the world has set aside Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day, when millions across the globe-including the American Federation of Teachers-unite to draw attention to the 33 million people affected by this terrible disease, and to push to stop it from spreading.

Monday 01 December 2008 :Statement Issued By Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, General Secretary of ITUC-AFRICA - This World AIDS day, let us remember all the African workers and their families who have died from AIDS related illnesses. Many professional and skilled trade unionists have died young leaving a gap that cannot be filled in industries and within their families. Let this day be a reminder to the industrialized countries of their failure to act on their promises on HIV/AIDS and send a warning signal to them that alot more workers will continue to suffer and die from AIDS due to their negligence.

For immediate release: December 1 2008 -On the occasion of World Aids Day the Global Union representing workers in the textile, clothing and leather industries is urging its affiliates to take the lead in combating unfair discrimination at the workplace against workers who are HIV-positive or suspected of being so.

Tomorrow, December 1, is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. To mark the day, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has issued a leaflet that can be found here. Since 1988, trade union and civil society efforts have engineered a strong response to the epidemic, and recorded results prove the engineering has solid footing, thanks to labour unions and NGOs.

For World AIDS Day this year the Chair of the Global Union AIDS Programme (GUAP), Alan Leather, appeals to the governments, the international community and other actors to make Universal Access for HIV/AIDS an urgent priority for the next two years, to reach the 2010 target.

On planes, trains & automobiles – not to mention buses, trams, docks, boats and ships, transport workers will be marking the 20th World Aids Day on Monday 1 December. Transport trade unionists will back the day, which is called by the World Aids Campaign, in activities organised by their unions and the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation).

To commemorate World AIDS Day, the newly-elected leaders of the ICEM showed their leadership by signing a pledge to reaffirm ICEM's commitment to fight AIDS in the workplace. The pledge was signed by all 840 trade union leaders who attended ICEM's 4th World Congress in Bangkok just prior to World AIDS Day. To read more about this pledge, please see below.