View source for Wanja Lundby-Wedin

{{Short description|Swedish trade unionist}}
{{Infobox person
| name   = Wanja Lundby-Wedin
| image     = Wanja_Lundby-Wedin.jpg
| caption  = Wanja Lundby-Wedin after being elected President of the [[European Trade Union Confederation]] in May 2007
| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1952|10|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]
| occupation     = [[Nurse]], [[trade union]] leader.
| spouse         = Lennart Wedin
| nationality = [[Sweden|Swedish]]
| party = [[Swedish Social Democratic Party]]
}}
'''Wanja Elisabeth Lundby-Wedin''' (born 19 October 1952) was the President of the [[Swedish Trade Union Confederation]] ({{langx|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]].
==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]]. 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.<ref name=LO>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).[http://www.dn.se/ekonomi/bonusdebatten-svallar-1.830425]
{{cite web
| url = http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/96FC6084362B6729C1256E4B0049772C
| title = Wanja Lundby-Wedin, President of LO-Sweden
| publisher = LO }}
</ref>
===President of the ETUC===
On 25 May, 2007 Wanja Lundby-Wedin was elected the President of the [[European Trade Union Confederation]], ETUC.<ref>
{{cite web
|url         = http://sevilla.etuc.org/Election-of-the-new-leadership-of
|title       = Election of the new leadership of the European Trade Union Confederation
|publisher   = ETUC
|url-status     = dead
|archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070703162826/http://sevilla.etuc.org/Election-of-the-new-leadership-of
|archivedate = 2007-07-03
}}
</ref> 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]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}
===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 [[Swedish Social Democratic Party|Social Democratic Party]]. In 2006, she was mentioned in the media as one of the possible candidates to lead the party<ref>
{{cite web
| url = http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=600&a=297153
| title = Vem tar över efter Göran Persson?
| publisher = Göteborgs-Posten
| language = swedish }}
</ref> after [[Göran Persson]] resigned the party leadership following the defeat in the [[2006 Riksdag election|2006 parliamentary election]]. She did not show any public interest in the post, and told journalists she considered [[Mona Sahlin]], who later received the post, a good candidate, although she refused to name a favourite.<ref>
{{cite web
| url = http://lotidningen.lo.se/?id_site=8&id_item=5455
| title = Sahlin är inte fackets fiende – anser LO:s ordförande
| publisher = LO-tidningen
| language = swedish}}
</ref> 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.<ref name=LO />
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/96FC6084362B6729C1256E4B0049772C Official LO website - biography]
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{{s-npo|union}}
{{succession box | before = [[Bertil Jonsson]] | title = President of the [[Swedish Trade Union Confederation]] | years = 2000&mdash;2012 | after = [[Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson]] }}
{{succession box | before = [[Cándido Méndez Rodríguez]] | title = President of the [[European Trade Union Confederation]] | years = 2007&mdash;2011 | after = [[Ignacio Fernández Toxo]] }}
{{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundby-Wedin, Wanja}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Politicians from Stockholm]]
[[Category:People from Södermanland]]
[[Category:Swedish trade unionists]]
[[Category:Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Swedish women politicians]]