AFL- CIO TO HOLD GLOBAL CONFERENCE TO ADDRESS WORKER’S FREEDOMS Unprecedented Meeting, Congressional Forum Aim to Strengthen Worldwide Solidarity

WASHINGTON, DC – At 1:15pm tomorrow, Tuesday, December 11, 2007, more than 200 trade union leaders from the United States and around the world will meet in the Washington, DC area as part of 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” -- sponsored by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and hosted by the AFLCIO -- marks the first time in history 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 join unions, enhance cooperation among trade unions across borders, and better represent workers in a global economy. The conference will include a special 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, Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative George Miller. Trade union leaders from around the world will discuss why respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining in their own countries is crucial to the survival of human rights and democracy. The global labor leaders will also urge the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act in the United States because it is vital to their own effort to achieve full organizing and bargaining rights in their own countries and with multinational companies. Following the conference, the ITUC, in conjunction with the global union federations, will launch a series of measures to strengthen cooperation among trade unions, enhance strategic research and mobilization capabilities to meet the challenges and needs of working men and woman across the globe. As part of the conference, global labor leaders will develop specific strategies to support a worldwide campaign to pass pro-worker labor law reform, which includes passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Leaders will also develop new techniques in support of organizing efforts across borders, to protect workers’ rights in an increasingly global economy as more companies become multinational. WHAT: AFL- CIO Global Conference Press Briefing WHEN: 1:15pm tomorrow, Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

WHO: John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO

Sen. Edward Kennedy

Rep. George Miller

John Monks, General Secretary, European Trade Union

Confederation

Sharan Burrow, President, International Trade Union Confederation

Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America

Victor Baez, General Secretary, Organización Regional

Interamericana de Trabajadores

Dr. John Logan, London School of Economics John Lindner, Field Technician, Verizon Business, New York, NY

Kelly Beringer, Registered Nurse, West Suburban Hospital

(Resurrection Health Care), Chicago, Ill. WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 430 ###