News and Media

Washington, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement on the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Elaine Chao as Secretary of Transportation: “I congratulate Elaine Chao on her confirmation by the Senate as our new Secretary of Transportation. The challenges Secretary Chao inherits are monumental. Decades of wrongheaded austerity […]

Unions asks FMCSA to extend comment period for hair testing request from large carriers As reported by Matt Cole in Commercial Carrier Journal A group representing dozens of transportation workers unions is asking the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to extend the public comment period for a recent request made by a few large trucking […]

Washington, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement in response to the “Blueprint to Rebuild America’s Infrastructure,” a trillion dollar, federally funded infrastructure plan announced yesterday by several U.S. Senators: “We applaud Senator Chuck Schumer and several of his colleagues for advancing the critical debate about the […]

WASHINGTON, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement on the inauguration of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States: “We congratulate Donald Trump on his inauguration as 45th President of the United States. “While the President inherits an economy that has made important strides since the […]

WASHINGTON, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement on the Port Performance Freight Statistics Program Annual Report to Congress: “We applaud Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Director Patricia Hu for issuing a balanced annual report to Congress on Port Performance as required […]

DRONES, ROBOT CARS COULD CAUSE MASSIVE JOB LOSS: UNION GROUP As reported by Stephanie Beasley in Bloomberg BNA A new federal committee will look at the potential for self-driving cars and other automated vehicle technologies to displace American workers in the future, among other issues. The Department of Transportation is slated to host the first […]

Washington, DC — Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues the following statement in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “At a time when the middle class is shrinking and economic upward mobility is becoming increasingly difficult for working families to achieve, we must turn to Dr. Martin Luther King […]

WASHINGTON, DC — TTD President Edward Wytkind will carry the concerns of working people in transportation as an appointed member to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation (ACAT), which was announced today by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “I am grateful to Secretary Foxx for appointing me and ensuring that […]

Limited Public Transit Options Still a Barrier to Upward Mobility, Says DOT, Union Group As reported by Stephanie Beasley Sixty years ago today, buses in Montgomery, Ala., were desegregated, effectively ending one of the nation’s most well-known civil rights protests—the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks helped launch the year-long boycott when she […]

Trucking Industry Continues Push to Test Drivers’ Hair for Drugs As reported by Hassan A. Kanu in Bloomberg BNA Dec. 1 — The federal agency responsible for reducing substance abuse will likely miss a Dec. 4 deadline to set national guidelines allowing trucking companies to test their drivers’ hair follicles for drugs. The freight transportation […]