U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis moved forward Monday with plans for a first-ever meeting of her Group of Twenty (G20) counterparts, despite the absence of ministers from Germany, France, Britain, and the European Commission because of disrupted air travel to and from Europe. Solis said the “historic” meeting would proceed in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday as planned without European ministers stranded by the ban on air travel caused by a volcanic ash plume from Iceland. “We do know that there are a few ministers who will not be able to make it, obviously, because of the volcanic eruption,” Solis said, but she said the conference still would achieve “concrete results.” The meeting was announced by President Barack Obama during a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania summit of G20 leaders in September. The Washington meeting would “ensure that employment issues and the challenges that the economic crisis is posing for working families is kept front and center in our mission,” Solis said. “We still need to create more jobs,” she said, adding that delegates would prepare a set of recommendations that will be discussed at a G20 summit in Toronto, Canada in June. “We have a historic opportunity to come up with a concrete set of recommendations,” the U.S. labor secretary said. The labor ministers are expected to discuss further job creation measures as well as expansion of unemployment insurance and skills development. The G20 is comprised of the world's leading industrialized and developing economies. Members expected to attend the Washington meeting include the United States, Japan, China, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and South Africa.
