Edward Wytkind

Edward Wytkind is the President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), a Washington, D.C.-based labor organization representing several million workers in the private and public sectors of the aviation, mass transit, rail, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. TTD is the transportation policy and legislative arm of its parent organization, the National AFL-CIO, which represents 10 million workers in the United States. Immediately prior to his election in the fall of 2003 by the Executive Committee, Wytkind served as TTD Executive Director for 13 years. Wytkind oversees TTD’s daily legislative, public policy, and regulatory programs and initiatives, serving as transportation labor’s chief spokesman. One of Wytkind’s primary duties is to work together with TTD’s 32 member unions representing transportation labor’s collective interests before the United States Congress, the executive branch and independent agencies of the Federal government including the U.S. Department of Transportation and its transit, aviation, railroad, highway, research and special programs, and other modal agencies, the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Mediation Board, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Surface Transportation Board and the White House. Wytkind also regularly testifies before Congress and provides a transportation labor perspective to conventions, conferences and other labor, industry and government meetings. Wytkind has also served as a transportation advisor in previous presidential elections and transitions. He has also been a guest lecturer at several universities.

Some of the issues Wytkind has worked on in recent years include the economic and security issues arising from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; transportation security challenges; organizing and collective bargaining rights; U.S.-EU negotiations over a new “Open Skies” aviation agreement; the safety and security risks associated with U.S.-Mexico cross-border transportation; FAA labor-management, staffing and modernization issues; boosting federal investment in mass transit, Amtrak and commuter rail, airports and air traffic control, highways and bridges, ports and maritime; privatization and foreign outsourcing; and raising the needs and concerns of transportation workers in national elections.

Wytkind is currently appointed by the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Labor to serve on the Labor Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations and Trade Policy, which consults the President and Congress on trade policy issues including proposed agreements and treaties. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies, as well as the Eno Transportation Foundation's Board of Advisors. Previously, Wytkind served on the Board of Directors for the Transit Development Corporation and worked with public and private transit industry representatives to advance a strong federally supported transit research agenda.

Wytkind, 47, is from Los Angeles, California, and today holds membership in the Office and Professional Employees International Union. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is married to Lorrie McHugh-Wytkind. They reside in suburban Washington, D.C., with their son and daughter.

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