Pennsylvania AFL-CIO

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO was formed in 1959 after the merger of the parent national organizations. It brought together the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, formed in 1902, and the Pennsylvania CIO Council, formed in the late 1930s. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO was responsible for protecting workers' rights with regard to collective bargaining, conducting member political education and training programs, monitoring legislative politics in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., and endorsing candidates that supported the organization's agenda. In the early twenty-first century it had 900,000 members affiliated with 51 international unions and 1,422 locals, and its activities were coordinated by 34 regional councils within the state.