Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA

In 1983, a young Australian nurse named Helen McCue, a committed member of the Australian Nursing Federation, was working as a nurse educator with the World Health Organisation in the Middle East. Returning to Australia later that year, she took a proposal inspired by her experience in the refugee camps to the then ACTU President Cliff Dolan.

Helen’s proposal was for the establishment of an international solidarity organisation in Australia. She had been inspired while working in the Palestinian refugee camps alongside nurses from Norwegian People’s Aid, the overseas aid arm of the Norwegian trade union movement. Impressed by their focus on skills training, Helen felt that the Australian union movement could also make a difference in the lives of workers and marginalised peoples around the world.

With Cliff’s support, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA was established in 1984.

Self reliance, not charity

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA’s international program has developed from a rights based approach. Our work aims to build self-reliance through support to educational and training projects for workers and their organisations. Over 40 training projects, working through 30 separate project partners in 15 countries assist many different communities in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, Southern Africa and the Caribbean.

Support for these projects comes from many individual union members throughout Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), unions and workplaces, as well as from the Australian government aid agency, DFAT.

New Campaign Campaigns

  • No Australian Money in Asbestos!
    Australia knows the toxic legacy of asbestos all too well. Sixteen years after the ban came into force in Australia, 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases every year. Around the world an estimated 250,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year. Still today, 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in their workplace each year. What is the loophole? The Asian Development Bank’s ‘Safeguard Policy’ prohibits investments that include raw asbestos. However, this does not apply to the purchase and use of asbestos cement sheeting where the asbestos content is less than 20%, which includes almost all asbestos sheeting. This means that victims of natural disasters can be sheltered under roof sheeting contaminated by asbestos. It means that communities trying to grow their wealth and improve their welfare can be given an asbestos time-bomb in the form of asbestos sheeting. The Asia Development Bank’s current policy enables the asbestos industry in Asia to survive, despite the disastrous health impacts of asbestos. Alternatives are widely available for all asbestos-containing products, and the ADB policy must be updated to reflect this. The ADB must close the loophole! Let’s take a stand to stop asbestos everywhere! Find out more at apheda.org.au/asbestos
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    Created by Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA
  • Stop blocking the COVID-19 vaccine waiver at the WTO!
    As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines is set to further entrench global inequality and threaten millions more lives. As it currently stands more than 85 developing countries will not have widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines before 2023. Residents of wealthy and middle-income countries have received about 90 percent of the nearly 400 million vaccines delivered so far. No one is safe unless everyone is safe. India is currently recording over 300,000 COVID-19 cases per day. South Africa and India are proposing the World Trade Organisation waive certain provisions that give the owners of the intellectual property exclusive rights over the manufacture and sale of COVID vaccines. The waiver would only apply to COVID-19 medical products and only for the duration of the pandemic. This would allow these countries and others to make COVID-19 vaccines and make vaccines more available to poorer countries more quickly and at less cost. Their proposal is supported by 118 of 164 countries on WTO. Australia is currently siding with the big pharmaceutical companies in protecting their exclusive patents and huge profits even in the midst of this global emergency. Big Pharma used public funding and technology to develop these vaccines but are refusing to temporarily share the patents to speed up access for all. Just three of these companies distributed $26 billion in profits to shareholders in the last year. This scandal must end. Enough is enough support the waiver!
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    Created by Union Aid Abroad APHEDA & Australian Council of Trade Unions Picture
  • Pay up! Honour entitlements to dismissed Timorese security workers
    Eduardo Belo is the owner of Gardarmor Security. He is also the biggest private sector employer in East Timor. Despite a recent article in the Nikkei Asian Review promoting his rise to ‘top business man in East Timor’, Belo has recently overseen the dismissal of over 100 Timorese security workers at Gardamor Security. Workers are angry that East Timor’s top businessman - who runs one of the most profitable private companies – has sacked these workers without paying them their entitlements. The General Workers Union of Timor Leste (SJT-TL) has turned to the Australian union movement for solidarity. We need your help: tell Eduardo Belo to honour his commitments to his security workers under Timorese labour law. We care about workers’ rights and support the General Workers Union of Timor Leste in their pursuit of compensation for these workers. Please sign and share to demand Eduardo Belo pays workers their entitlements.
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    Created by Union Aid Abroad APHEDA
  • No asbestos in Covid 19 relief
    There is unprecedented international funding for public health programs. In countries where asbestos is still used, health infrastructure such as hospitals or clinics built to respond to the Covid 19 crisis may contain asbestos building materials. Economic stimulus around the world is injecting money into infrastructure and construction and in countries that still use asbestos this will result in a boost to the asbestos industry and a toxic health legacy for decades to come. Unless we act to win safe, sustainable and just health and economic stimulus spending then corporations and industry lobbies will take advantage of this moment to advance their own interests. The scale of funding is huge. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other multilateral development banks have announced tens of billions of dollars in grants and additional ‘concessional’ credit to the world’s poorest countries. To match the unprecedented responses by international organisations and governments across the world, we can take a bold step by committing that no recovery or health stimulus funds will be used to purchase asbestos building products. Join this campaign and make sure that the asbestos industry doesn’t profit from this health crisis.
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    Created by Emma Bacon
  • Restore funding for UNRWA
    In a region rife with conflicts, and now battling the health and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, UNRWA stands as a vital source of regional stability. UNRWA has been recognised as a major contributor in the containment of the COVID-19 virus, particularly in preventing its spread through densely populated Palestinian refugee camps in the region. Australia has a long history of support to the Palestinian people. Australian aid to UNRWA is a practical and genuine demonstration of our long-standing support for the Middle East peace process. This support provides basic services (education and health), livelihood opportunities and protection for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syrian, Lebanon and Jordan. We call on the Australian Government to restore funding for UNRWA and uphold its commitment to Palestinian refugees and peace in the Middle East.
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    Created by Union Aid Abroad APHEDA Picture
  • End Illegal Asbestos Imports
    Asbestos has been banned in Australia since 2003 however every week illegal asbestos imports are stopped at our border. Some new asbestos products are also still making their way into our communities and workplaces in the form of building materials, car parts, children’s crayons and even home decorations. Once they inside Australia, it’s hard to detect them and then hard to get them removed without strong government regulation and enforcement. As long as countries in our region such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, India and Cambodia continue to manufacture asbestos products, we will continue to get illegal imports. Asbestos isn’t safe at any level of exposure. That’s why we’re supporting campaigns to ban asbestos throughout our region. In November 2017 the Senate Inquiry into Non-Conforming Building Products delivered an interim report into illegal asbestos imports. The recommendations included: • The Australian Government supporting asbestos bans internationally • Increased prosecutions and penalties for illegal imports • A whole of Government approach to ending illegal asbestos imports • Funding for the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency • More education and training on illegal asbestos imports • Funding to adequately screen imports • Compulsory recalls for consumer products containing asbestos The Liberal and Nationals members of the Inquiry called the recommendations ‘overreach’. Though a response has been due since May, the Government is yet to respond. We’re calling on the Government to support the recommendations of the inquiry, will you join us?
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