Wanja Elisabeth Lundby-Wedin (born 19 October 1952) was the President of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( sv, Landsorganisationen i Sverige or ''LO'') from 2000 to 2012. From May 2007 until May 2011, she was the President of the

European Trade Union Confederation The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and ...

Career

Trade union career

After having worked as a nursing auxiliary at Högdalen hospital in southern Stockholm, Lundby-Wedin studied to become assistant nurse, and started to work at Danderyd hospital north of Stockholm. There, she got her first trade union assignment, as union liaison officer for the

Swedish Municipal Workers' Union The Swedish Municipal Workers' Union ( sv, Svenska Kommunalarbetareförbundet), is the largest trade union in Sweden with 570 000 members as of 2005, it was created 1910. It is commonly referred to as ''Kommunal'' ("''Municipal''"). The union ...

. In 1981 she was employed as union representative at the Stockholm branch of the union, and in 1987 she became Head of the Department for Environmental Issues at its national headquarters. In 1994 she became Vice President of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and at the confederation's congress in September 2000 she was elected President, thereby becoming the first women on that post.She is currently at the centre of a debate about what she knew and/or contributed to the awarding of a 60 million kronor pension deal to her predecessor, or to the large bonus-based yearly salary (totaling 40 million kronor over his period of employment

President of the ETUC

On 25 May, 2007 Wanja Lundby-Wedin was elected the President of the

, ETUC. She thus became the first female president of the ETUC as well as the first ETUC president from Sweden. In her acceptance speech she emphasised her support for solid welfare systems and criticised the migration and refugee policy of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

Role in the Social Democratic party

In the capacity of President of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, Lundby-Wedin is also a member of the Executive of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

. In 2006, she was mentioned in the media as one of the possible candidates to lead the party after

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliam ...

resigned the party leadership following the defeat in the 2006 parliamentary election. She did not show any public interest in the post, and told journalists she considered

Mona Sahlin Mona Ingeborg Sahlin ( born 9 March 1957) is a Swedish politician who was leader of the opposition and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. Sahlin was a Member of Parliament, representing Stockholm County, from 198 ...

, who later received the post, a good candidate, although she refused to name a favourite. In the final months before the leadership election her name was no longer generally mentioned in the discussion.

Personal life

Lundby-Wedin is married and has two children.

References

External links

Official LO website - biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundby-Wedin, Wanja 1952 births Living people Politicians from Stockholm People from Södermanland Swedish trade unionists Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians 21st-century Swedish women politicians