Duane E. Woerth (born 1948) is a former American labor union leader. Born in

Scribner, Nebraska Scribner is a city in Dodge County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 857 at the 2010 census. History Scribner was platted in 1870 by Lucius D. Richards when the railroad was extended to that point. It was named for publishing magnat ...

, Woerth served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

, eventually becoming a lieutenant colonel in the

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

. After leaving the air force, he became a pilot with

Braniff Airlines Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until the cessation of air operations, was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982 and continues to ...

, for five years, then served with

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines (often abbreviated as NWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 until it Delta Air Lines–Northwest Airlines merger, merged with Delta Air Lines in 2010. The merger made Delta the largest airline ...

for 23 years. From 1993 to 1998, he sat on its board of directors. He was active in the

Air Line Pilots Association The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is the largest pilot union in the world, representing more than 79,000 pilots from 42 US and Canadian airlines. ALPA was founded on 27 July 1931 and is a member of the AFL-CIO and the Canadian ...

(ALPA), and served as its first vice president for eight years, then executive vice president. He also represented ALPA on the board of the

International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) is an international not-for-profit organization of national aircraft pilot trade unions, known as pilot associations. IFALPA was founded in April 1948 and is based in Montreal ...

. In 1998, Woerth was elected as president of ALPA. Under his leadership, the union grew by absorbing various independent pilots' unions, while its financial position was strengthened, and donations to its

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

doubled. He also served as a vice-president of the

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

. Woerth retired from the union in 2006, and from the AFL-CIO in 2007. That year, he was a co-founder of the big data and marketing firm

Sojern Sojern is a marketing company specializing in services for the travel industry. It utilizes programmatic advertising and machine learning to assist travel businesses in identifying and targeting potential customers across various digital media ch ...

, and he then served on its board of directors. From 2010 to 2013, he also represented the United States on the council of the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woerth, Duane 1948 births Living people American trade union leaders Commercial aviators People from Scribner, Nebraska Trade unionists from Nebraska Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO Permanent representatives of the United States to the International Civil Aviation Organization