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RG-80
Records of the MILRITE
(Making Industry and Labor Right in Today's Economy)
COUNCIL
The MILRITE Council was created by a statute of July 1, 1978, operated for sixteen-and-a-half years, and was terminated, as scheduled, on December 31, 1994. MILRITE is an acronym for "Making Industry and Labor Right in Today's Economy." It was a quasi-public economic development agency consisting of a fifteen-member board. Members were appointed by the governor, with five nominated by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, five nominated by the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, two selected by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, two selected by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one selected by the Governor. The legislature hoped MILRITE would improve the state's economy by creating labor-management cooperation in conjunction with government planning and direct material support. MILRITE did not generally engage in working conditions disagreements although it evaluated the efficiency of other state services that did so. It was best known for suggesting and outlining the Ben Franklin Partnership Trust, which became the center piece of the Thornburgh administration's economic assistance and shift to high tech emphasis, and was continued as an important part of the Casey administration's economic support network. In 1984, the General Assembly mandated that MILRITE set up and administer "Area Labor Management Committees" (ALMCs) wherever need existed, awarding grants for those purposes. The number of ALMCs rose to fourteen, although by 1993 only eleven remained. In addition to saving floundering businesses and starting new ones, the ALMC committees were expected to increase worker efficiency through training and morale boosting. MILRITE's other accomplishments included: pushing legislation that allowed the state's two big pension funds (State Employee Retirement and Public School Retirement) to invest in venture capital instruments; designing the Pennsylvania Private Placement Separate Account which brought financial expertise to the aid of small businesses; developing a state technology transfer program; and developing the state's employee ownership assistance program. After MILRITE was dissolved, many of its grant administering duties and the supervision of the ALMCs were assumed by the Department of Labor and Industry's Office of Labor Management Cooperation. More records relating to MILRITE can be found in the Richard Thornburgh Papers (MG-404) and the records of Governor Robert P. Casey within the Records of the Office of the Governor (RG-10).
A more detailed history of
this Council is available.
Last processing update: 5/27/2011, acc. #4787
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