Brad Markell works in the president’s office at the AFL-CIO and serves as the Executive Director of both the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and the Working for America Institute. He also chairs the AFL-CIO energy task force.
Brad also leads the energy policy work at the AFL-CIO, including staffing the federation’s energy committee and coordinating with AFL-CIO affiliates to develop policy positions that broadly advance the interests of workers in energy-producing and energy-intensive sectors. He led U.S. labor delegations to several United Nations climate negotiations and worked closely with the U.S. State Department to win worker-friendly language in the Paris Agreement.
Prior to joining the staff of the AFL-CIO, Brad was an International Representative with the UAW in Detroit for 15 years, where his duties included helping develop and advance the union’s positions on energy and environmental policy. While at the UAW, Brad also participated in several rounds of national bargaining in the automobile, aerospace and heavy truck industries.
Brad also worked extensively in Mexico on behalf of the UAW to build ties to Mexican unions and to develop cross-border strategies to build worker power. This included the formation of a working group of U.S., Canadian and Mexican automobile unions and involvement in labor rights cases brought under provisions of the original NAFTA. He is currently a USTR cleared trade advisor to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.
Brad was deeply involved in the negotiations leading to the historic tailpipe emissions standards for light-duty vehicles, and led the UAW’s efforts to establish public support for manufacturing clean and efficient vehicles in the United States, including the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturers loan program administered by DOE.
Before working for the UAW, Brad was the labor program director at the Michigan Manufacturing Extension Partnership center, where he worked with small and medium-sized union manufacturers to implement new work systems, promote labor-management cooperation, and improve quality and productivity.
Brad’s board and committee service on behalf of the labor movement has included the Biden-Harris transition team, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, the National Academy of Engineering, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Council, the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council, the International Research Network on Autowork in the Americas, the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, the Michigan Climate Action Council, and the International Labor Organization’s Expert Committee on Just Transition.
Brad has degrees from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. He joined the UAW in 1976, when he hired into General Motors, and is a member of Local 14 in Toledo, Ohio.