From AFL-CIO Blog:

With workers’ rights under attack around the world, some 220 top global union leaders from more than 63 countries kicked off the first-ever global summit on organizing at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md. They plan to map strategies to restore the balance between working people and powerful corporations that ignore national boundaries and rules in search of the greatest profit.

The Dec. 10–11 conference, hosted by the AFL-CIO, marks International Human Rights Day, held each Dec. 10 to commemorate passage of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Union members around the world commemorate Human Rights Day, and the Declaration serves as both benchmark and beacon for how well human rights, including the freedom to form unions and have decent working conditions, are respected and protected.

Fred Van Leeuwen, chairman of the Council of Global Unions (CGU), the summit’s sponsor, set the theme:

As never before, we must link globally. We are sending a message to corporations everywhere that everyone has aright to join a union.

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You can also hear an audio report from Marketplace Public Radio Here

the transcript from the audio report from:

Scott Jagow: Also in Washington today, the AFL-CIO hosts a conference on the freedom to form unions. This is a pretty critical time for labor groups. The percentage of Americans under union contracts is at its lowest point in decades. More from Jeremy Hobson.

Jeremy Hobson: In the 1950's, about 35 percent of American workers were unionized. Today, 12 percent.

Stewart Acuff: It's shocking.

That's Stewart Acuff, the AFL-CIO's national organizing director. He says among developed nations, the U.S. is not providing nearly the protections for unions that other countries do.

Acuff: Our policies have not kept up with the change in the global economy.

John Beck heads the Labor Education Program at Michigan State University. He says in order for unions to regain traction, legal protections have to catch up with the times. For instance, benefits should be transferrable from one company to another.

John Beck: Those kinds of legal realities are going to have to shift as work becomes far more mobile, as people try to come to grips with not only what the demands of the workplace are, but what the demands of a new workforce are.

Jeremy Hobson: Tomorrow, Congress will hear from union leaders directly on strengthening workers' rights.

In Washington, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.