Labor & Industry's Heritage

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry is proud to be a leader in economic and workforce development for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Our goal is to continuously enhance and improve the many vital programs and services provided to Pennsylvania's workers and employers.

 

 

 

Though we focus on these responsibilities with both contemporary and futuristic perspectives, we similarly recognize that our current successes are predicated on the diligence, perseverance, and inspiration of our predecessors.

 

In recognition of that rich legacy, former Secretary Johnny J. Butler commissioned a Heritage Committee to research, document, preserve and promote the history of the Department. The ensuing pages represent some products of that committee. While this historical perspective provides strategic benefits to current Labor and Industry employees, the compilation of that information can also be useful to students, historians, scholars, citizens and others.

Labor & Industry's Heritage Committee grew out of our sense of pride in the past and desire for a better future. We feel it is important to commemorate the Department's role in the lives of Pennsylvania's workers and employers. The Heritage Committee, commissioned by former Secretary Johnny J. Butler in 1996, has accepted the challenge of documenting the development and evolution of the Department of Labor & Industry since its creation in 1913.

 

The purpose of the Heritage Committee can be expressed in terms of the needs and desires of internal and external customers. Internally, it should provide a means by which individual employees can link the work they are performing to the past and to the emerging mission of the Department. Externally, it should demonstrate how Labor & Industry's programs have contributed to Pennsylvania's rich legacy.

 

Heritage Committee membership represents a cross section of labor and management employees from Labor & Industry bureaus and offices, AFSCME leadership and PHMC representatives. The committee continues to seek information, artifacts, pictures of employees and worksites, tools, original documents, and anything else that would play a part in preserving these vital memories. If you can help us in this effort, please contact:

 

Christine Yelovich
(717) 772-9408

 

Leading partner in both public and private efforts to
research, preserve, and interpret the Commonwealth's history: