(The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department issued the following news release on November 19.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The member unions of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), in a meeting of leaders yesterday, elected Edward Wytkind as President and Michael Ingrao as Secretary-Treasurer. Wytkind and Ingrao were elected to these positions by TTD?s Executive Committee, which consists of leaders of 35 AFL-CIO transportation unions. The new officers will assume their duties on December 1, 2003.
“It has been a tremendous honor to serve as TTD’s Executive Director for more than a decade, and both Mike and I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of these great unions and their hard-working members,” Wytkind said.
The election of Wytkind and Ingrao follows a recent restructuring of the organization under which the President and Secretary-Treasurer become full-time positions. Throughout TTD’s history these offices were filled by leaders of international unions. To pave the way for the restructuring, the current officers — TTD President Sonny Hall and Secretary-Treasurer Patricia Friend — will vacate their TTD positions. They will continue in their capacities as presidents of the Transport Workers Union and the Association of Flight Attendants respectively, and as such will contribute immensely to TTD’s programs and activities.
Under the reorganized TTD, Hall will continue as a member of the TTD’s Executive Committee and will serve as the first Chair of the organization’s newly created Financial Oversight Subcommittee, which will provide oversight for TTD’s financial affairs. Friend will also continue to serve on the Executive Committee and will join Hall as a member of the Financial Oversight Subcommittee.
“Transportation workers are deeply indebted to Sonny Hall and Pat Friend, both of whom committed themselves — while running busy international unions — to advancing TTD’s agenda to unify transportation unions behind a common legislative and political agenda,” Wytkind said. “Their legacy as TTD leaders can be summed up in a single word — unity.”
Wytkind, who has served as the TTD?s Executive Director for almost 13 years, has testified frequently before Congress and represented member unions before the Executive Branch and various independent agencies. In recent years, he has coordinated efforts with TTD affiliates to respond to the economic and jobs crisis of the airline industry in the wake of the September 11 attacks, new transportation security mandates, White House attempts to open U.S. highways to unsafe trucks and buses domiciled in Mexico, proposed legislation to weaken the collective bargaining rights of transportation workers, and federal funding for Amtrak, mass transit, highways, airports and air traffic control, and ports.
Ingrao, TTD’s Chief of Staff since 1999, brings over 25 years of experience in the labor movement, 17 of which were spent in the national AFL-CIO’s Political Department. In addition to managing the day-to-day financial affairs for the organization, Ingrao will continue to direct TTD’s political program.
TTD represents 35 member unions in the trucking, bus, transit, highway, aviation, rail, longshore, maritime and related industries.