International: Changes for global union movement

At a meeting in Brussels on 9-10 January 2007, a new Council of Global Unions was set up by all the principal world-level trade union organisations - the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the 10 sectoral global union federations (GUFs) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The organisations' leaders signed a founding agreement which states that the council is based on a "common determination to organise, defend human and trade union rights and labour standards everywhere, and promote the growth of trade unions for the benefit of all working women and men and their families".