South America: Trade unions bring vaccines to workers

As part of the global effort to ensure wide access to COVID-19 vaccines, BWI-affiliated unions in South America partnered with their respective health ministries to promote vaccination to their members. 

In Equador, one hundred and fifty (150) construction workers aged 23-50, together with their families, got their first dose of the vaccine. This was after the Equatorian Federation of Mechanic Equipment Workers (FEDESOMEC) requested the Ministry of Public Health, through its affiliate union SOMEC del Oro, to include operators of heavy construction machinery in the country’s national vaccination plan. 

Similarly, the Union Workers of Bricks Industry of the Republic of Argentina (UOLRA), in partnership with different municipalities, began a vaccination campaign focused on brick workers’ families in Cucullú and Las Heras, Argentina. Workers and their families who had their first dose of the vaccine were also vaccinated against influenza and pneumococcus.

UOLRA said that it aims to help vaccinate nearly four hundred (400) families who work in different artisanal brick kilns in the said localities.