This weekend Harvard plays host to black labor organizers from around the world in a three-day conference about the future of labor organization and public policy.

The African-American Labor Leaders Economic Summit was started last year when the labor leaders approached the University wanting to have a conference with Harvard faculty.

This year's conference has been expanded to include leaders from outside the United States. Those invited are both general labor leaders who are black and leaders of specifically black unions.

The event is sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program (HTUP), in conjunction with the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

The conference is focusing on three major issues related to the labor movement and the working class: health care reform, tax policy and the criminal justice system.

"Last year's conference was a tremendous success, it was the first time that both [the black trade unions] and the policy makers at Harvard learned how valuable this exchange is," said event organizer and CBTU president William Lucy.

Instead of featuring only lectures by faculty, the conference is designed as an open discussion between policy makers and labor leaders.

"We designed these forums specifically to be interactive...not a one-way discussion of experts talking down to labor leaders," said HTUP teacher John T. "Jack" Trumpbour.