Introduction

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a set of diseases that appear when a person’s immune system isn’t working because of infection with a virus called HIV: Human Immune-deficiency Virus. A person infected with HIV can remain healthy for a long time but if too much damage is done to the immune system other diseases will appear. After the diseases appear, we say the person has AIDS. 

The number of people living with AIDS and with HIV infection continues to grow everywhere in the United States. At some time, almost every workplace will have to deal with a worker who is living with HIV or with AIDS. What happens to this individual, and to his or her co-workers, depends to a large extent upon the atmosphere in the workplace.

The steward is the backbone of the union. The steward’s attitudes and principles help ensure fairness and equal treatment for all the people on the job. Leadership exercised by the steward is one of the most important elements in establishing an atmosphere in the workplace, and that atmosphere determines what will happen to the person living with AIDS or HIV disease.

Most employers don’t want to deal with health issues, especially AIDS, on the job. It’s "too complicated" or "not really necessary" or "not our problem." As a result, many workplaces don’t have any policies on AIDS. This can be a bad situation for the worker for two reasons.

First, if somebody is diagnosed with HIV disease or with AIDS, the person may try to keep it secret for fear of losing his or her job. Even though the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities, including diseases like AIDS, many people don’t want to take a chance, so they keep their secret. Eventually, however, when the illness becomes severe, it won’t be a secret anymore. Then the person is dealing not only with a developing health problem, but also a workplace problem that is stressful on everybody.

The solution is to establish a good and fair policy on AIDS before you need one. Then, when the need arises, the worker won’t feel the need to hide a serious medical condition (and perhaps jeopardize his or her health as a result) or have to worry about discrimination or similar problems on the job.

Second, co-workers who are misinformed may be afraid to work with someone with HIV/AIDS because they have not been given the information they need. The solution to this potential problem is to schedule HIV/AIDS training — and to do it before AIDS becomes an issue. There may be some members who think that AIDS training is a waste of time and they won’t want to go. But the facts are clear: 

• Almost a million people are infected in the United States. 
  
  
• The number of people getting infected continues to rise. 
  
  
• The majority of those infected are in their prime working years. 
  
  

The odds are that AIDS will appear at your workplace; and it’s important to be prepared beforehand. AIDS, unfortunately, is not going to go away. If your workplace hasn’t been affected yet, it will be.