It was formed on June 9, 1960, by the merger of two predecessor bodies, the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor (an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor) and the Pennsylvania Industrial Union Council (an affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations).

Elmer E. Greenawalt, a Cigar Makers' Union member from Lancaster, was elected president.

The Chester convention also advocated independent political action by the state federation, rather than allegiance to a single party.

[5] In 1912, Greenawalt retired as president of the United States, and James H. Maurer was elected his successor.

[6] James Maurer was one of the most prominent trade union activists in the country, and a lifelong socialist.

He was elected president of the Workers' Education Bureau of America and Brookwood Labor College in 1921, and won a seat on the governing National Committee of the Conference for Progressive Political Action in 1922.

Industrial unionism appealed to many in the American labor movement, because it not only allowed millions of new workers to enter trade unions, it also empowered the labor movement politically so that social ills such as unsafe working conditions, long working hours, low wages and excessive profit-taking, lack of unemployment insurance, lack of pensions, and child labor) could be combated.

Leading a faction in favor of craft unionism was John S. Otis, a machinist from Pittsburgh.

Casey, meanwhile, was a compromise candidate who advocated both philosophies toward labor organizing (although he favored industrial unionism).

[9] The Great Depression led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president, and on June 16, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery Act into law to help combat the effects of the economic crisis.

Title I, Section 7(a) guaranteed the right of workers to form unions and banned yellow-dog contracts.

[14] On April 6, 1938 a new AFL-affiliated federation of labor was organized at a convention held in the state capital, Harrisburg.

[16] In an odd turn of events, Joseph McDonough resigned as president of the Pennsylvania AFL on June 7, 1960, to protest the election of Earl C. Bohr as the state federation's secretary-treasurer.

Bohr supporters successfully challenged this motion on the floor, arguing a recommendation was out of order.

He remained president from 1962 until 1982,[19] and was 78 at the time of his retirement By 2011, the state federation represented 900,000 workers,[20] dropping to just 800,000 in 2012.

[1] In 2014, the Pennsylvania AFL–CIO endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Mike Stack.