what the afl-cio is trying to do is continue a trend they ve done in the past and form organizations of nonunion workers and try to figure out ways for workers that are difficult to organize in low wage industries and industries with a lot of turn afternooover get them involved. it s going to be a question of how long the afl-cio is going to be able to commit to this. let s talk about the protest of walmart workers. how effective have these demonstrations been? are workers making any gains? it s unclear exactly where it s going. it s a long, uphill struggle. walmart has retaliated against a lot of these workers. 60 workers have been fired. so they re raising consciousness among walmart workers but walmart is fighting back at the same time. how much of the demonstrations themselves how much have they also been about big labor s search for new members? i think that s a big thing.
committed crimes against humanity. pope benedict xvi is visiting madrid, spain. the city expects a million or so people to attend. not everyone is happy to see the pontiff, however. some spaniards are protests over the cost to put on the event. those are the headlines from cnn, the world s news leader. i m zain verjee and world business today starts now. good morning from cnn london. i m nina dos santos. good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i m andrew streechbs. you re watching world business today. the top stories this friday, august 19th. many people are happy it is indeed a friday because the market sell-off continues to roll around the world as fear takes hold of global investors. bank of america announces plans to cut thousands of jobs. and the story of a small business that s thriving despite the tough economic environment. now, the stock market sell-off has made its way right around the world as andrew is saying, driven in particular by fierce of recessio