On campus:

AFT delegation returns from Africa-AIDS fact-finding mission

An AFT delegation led by Executive Vice President Nat LaCour this month returned from a two-week fact-finding mission in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Botswana, where delegation members found strong interest and support for the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign.

At the invitation of teacher unions in all four countries, as well as the Botswana Nurses Association, the delegation met with teachers and nurses, government officials, union leaders, American diplomats, representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and foreign assistance agencies, They gathered information and advice on how the AFT can help African teacher unions that are struggling to cope with the severe impact of the epidemic on their members and on the education and health care systems of those countries. The AFT is working with teacher unions in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe on AIDS education and prevention programs for their members.

"We are not here with solutions to all the challenges presented by the scourge of AIDS," said LaCour at a press conference with representatives of the Kenyan National Union of Teachers in Nairobi. "We want to offer our help to our colleagues by raising resources, identifying potential donors and using our experience to help them provide their members with the accurate information and effective education necessary to combat AIDS."

More details about the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign are posted online at http://www.aft.org/africa_aids.

Union urges repeal of home health care cut

The AFT is urging Congress to repeal a scheduled 15 percent cut in home health care support from Medicare.

In a June 19 letter to the Senate Finance Committee, AFT Legislative Director Charlotte Fraas said the cut was unjustified. She noted the General Accounting Office (GAO) report that supports the 15 percent cut based its conclusions on cost data from 1997 because Medicare cost reports for 2001 are not yet available. As such, "the GAO report does not present an accurate assessment of the home care industry's current costs," she said. The AFT represents several thousand home care nurses, as well as thousands of home care recipients.

The union also opposes the new home health care co-payment requirement under consideration by the House Ways and Means Committee.

"Any home care proposal that would require a $40 co-payment would be devastating to the many elderly who currently depend on those services after being discharged from a hospital," Fraas noted.