World Labor Leaders Gather in DC

The world's top labor leaders will gather in Washington next week for an unprecedented 2-day conference on Global Workers' Rights. On Monday, December 10 and Tuesday December 11, the AFL-CIO will host more than 200 trade union leaders from the United States and 63 countries around the world in the Washington area at a historic conference and Congressional forum on the international crisis in workers' rights and the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. The two-day conference, "Going Global: Organizing, Recognition and Union Rights," is sponsored by the Council of Global Unions (CGU). It marks the first time this number of trade union leaders from around the globe have gathered to develop ideas and strategies to combat corporations' and governments' efforts to suppress workers' freedom to form and join unions, enhance cooperation among trade unions across borders and better represent workers in a global economy. The conference will also include a forum at the U.S. Congress on December 11, "Restoring Workers' Rights to Organize: Global Perspectives, Global Action."  The forum will be chaired and moderated by Congressional leaders, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. George Miller. Trade union leaders from around the world will discuss why respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining is crucial to the survival of human rights and democracy around the world. Leaders will also urge for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which they consider vital to their own effort to achieve full organizing and bargaining rights in their own countries and with multinational companies.