Brussels, 13 May 2008: ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder joined leaders of the trade union centres from the G8 countries in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo today to demand urgent action on the global food crisis, climate change, the worsening jobs and incomes situation and financial regulation.

The union delegation which was led by John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO and the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) and Tsuyoshi Takagi, President of the Japanese national trade union centre JTUC-RENGO, pressed the Japanese government as current Chair of the G8 to support the demands set out in a statement
released earlier this month by the TUAC. Prime Minister Fukuda was accompanied at the meeting by Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.

The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates.

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