The Labor Month in Review

WHEN THE PRESIDENT on January 17 signed Executive Order 10988, the way was opened for formal collective bargaining relations between the Nation's largest employer-the Federal Government and most of its 2.5 million civilian employees.

A presidential task force, consisting of the Secretary of Labor as chairman, the chairman of the Civil Service Commission, the director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Postmaster General, the Secretary of Defense, and the Special Counsel to the President, made the recommendations which eventuated as the order.

THE ORDER DECLARES, as a policy of good government, that "orderly and constructive relationships be maintained between employee organizations and management officials." It then lays down principles and rules to guide those relationships and directs all officers and agencies of the executive branch to be governed accordingly. Some significant provisions of the order are outlined in the following paragraphs.

1. Employees have the right to join unions-or to refrain from joining-without risk of coercion or reprisal, and the right, once in a union, to participate in it as member or officer, "including presentation of its views to officials [and] the Congress...'

2. Recognition is denied unions which assert a right to strike against the Government (or to assist any such strike), advocate overthrow of the "constitutional form" of government, or practice racial, religious, or nationality discrimination.

3. Three forms of recognition are accorded unions. The informal type, in effect, acknowledges that the organization exists and can represent its members, although the agency need not consult it on personnel policy matters. Formal status can be acquired if the union has at least 10

percent "stable" membership in a given unit in which no other union has exclusive recognition; it speaks for its members only and is consulted on personnel policy; a prerequisite to formal recognition is the filing of officers' names, union constitution, and objectives. To obtain exclusive recognition, the organization must be selected by a majority of employees in a unit and cannot have within it managerial executives, nonclerical personnel employees, and certain supervisors; professional and nonprofessional employees may not combine in a unit unless the former agree; a written memorandum of agreement can be negotiated covering all in the unit, although budgetary matters, the mission of the agency, assignment of personnel, and the technology employed in performing work are specifically proscribed as negotiable matters; there are other protections of management's right to manage.

4. A form of "advisory" arbitration of grievances is permissible if both sides agree, but application of the recommendation is subject to approval of the agency head, and only interpretation of an agreement or application of agency policy can be thus arbitrated. (A similar form of quasi-arbitration has been practiced between the Department of Interior and unions representing employees of The Alaska Railroad.') 5. By July 1, 1962, agency heads must issue regulations to implement the order, including how to determine bargaining units and to conduct elections.

6. The Civil Service Commission and the Department of Labor are made jointly responsible for preparing proposed "standards of conduct" for unions and a proposed code of fair labor practices for employee-management relations in the Federal Service; the Commission is made responsible for management training in employee-management relations.

In summary, the order does two things: It guarantees certain rights of organization, consultation, and formal processing of grievances to an exceptionally large group of workers who by law are denied the strike weapon; it gives Federal employee unions some of the representation and

1 See Edwin M. Fitch, "The Government and Bargaining on The Alaska Railroad," Monthly Labor Review, May 1961, pp. 459-462.

Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg, addressing the American Federation of Government Employees, noted that at times in the past the relationship between unions of Federal employees and Government agencies "was one of ill-disguised hostility." He predicted that "the voice of the organizations of Federal employees will increasingly be heard in the councils of our Government and throughout the land," and he urged that "it be the voice of responsibility."

John W. Macy, Jr., chairman of the Civil Service Commission, called the order "the start of a new era in personnel-management in Government."

The emulative effect that this Federal experiment at the Federal level might have on nearly 7 million State and local government employees could be as interesting a development to watch as the progress of events under the Executive order.

SIGNING OF THE ORDER does not portend organization of all Federal employees or the inclusion in one huge union of all Federal workers who wish to be organized. Unionization of Federal employees has been legally sanctioned since passage of the Lloyd-La Follette Act of 1912, and there currently are more than 40 unions which compete for their membership. Some of the unions limit their membership exclusively to Federal workers, either on a craft or all-occupation basis; others have the bulk of their membership in private industries, but also organize craftrelated Federal workers. Outside the Post Office Department, no union has organized a majority

of the employees in any of the largest agencies of the Government. It was estimated by the presidential task force that two-thirds of all Government workers do not hold union membership.

The Executive order is perforce restricted to those agencies which together form the executive branch of the Government, wherein most Federal employees work. Excluded are employees of the Congress (and agencies responsible to Congress such as the Government Printing Office) and of the Federal courts. Moreover, employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and others with investigating, intelligence, or security functions are specifically barred.

FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYMENT in the executive branch embraces hundreds of occupations-from deep sea divers to astronomers, from mail clerks to ecologists. Work stations are located in just about every country. The methods of determining wages and salaries are so varied and so complicated as to preclude brief explanation. About

a million workers receive statutory salaries under the Classification Act of 1949. They are known as "classified" employees, and include the headquarters staff of the Post Office Department. Yet. the "field service" of that Department, with about a half million workers, is paid under a schedule established by still another law. More than 650,000 "blue-collar" workers (laborers and craftsmen), principally in the Departments of the Army. Navy, and Air Force (which also employ thousands) of classified workers), are paid on the basis of sev eral wage board or prevailing rate plans, some of which involve direct negotiation with unions And there are other methods involving smaller; groups.

With the notable exception of the postal service and certain skilled crafts, unionism as yet has not been attractive to a sizable proportion of Govern-" ment employees, particularly in the white-collar occupations. This has probably been due in part to the provisions for job tenure in the civil service as a whole and to such legally established benefits! as generous vacation and sick leave, along with insurance and retirement benefits.

See Toivo P. Kanninen, "Rate Setting by the Army-Air Force Ws Board," Monthly Labor Review, October 1958, pp. 1107-1112.