Eo 10988 Research Paper

Executive Order can be defined as "A presidential policy directive that implements or interprets a federal statute, a constitutional provision or a treaty." (Vosloo, 1966) The Congress gives the president powers to issue such executive orders though congressional approval is not required therefore giving the president a chance to avoid public debate and opposition in setting policy. Executive orders have been associated with routine matters of administration and internal operations of federal agencies and have over time proved to be a very critical tool to presidents in relation to policy making. It should also be noted that executive orders have the force and effect of law and their issuance are usually under particular statutory authority from the Congress (Vosloo, 1966).

In the year 1962 President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order which was labeled Executive Order 10988 and whose main aim was to recognize federal employees' rights in bargaining with management. J.F. Kennedy made this promise to workers in his campaign against Nixon and when he got into office the workers kept pressurizing for the same, he therefore issued it as a payoff for the workers' support in the election. It marked the first time ever in the establishment of a government-wide labor relations policy which was broad in nature. This executive order required that union representatives consulted or met management representative within the official time. The determination of the amount of official time accorded was left to the discretion of agencies such as requiring negotiations to be conducted at a time when the union representatives were not on duty. In a case where the time required for negotiations proved to be burdensome then the management were required to direct the employee representatives to create their own time for such negotiations, internal union business was not allowed when representatives were on duty.

Impact in Hawaii

The Executive Order 10988 opened door to the drastic rise in the unionization of the public workforce not only in Hawaii but in the many states and cities.The public employee unions immediately recorded a sharp growth in membership, notably however was the decline in private sector union membership compared to the growth in the public sector membership. This led to a competition between the public and private sector with each fighting to define the work in the region. It soon became clear that the public sector unions had an upper hand in pushing forward their interest as compared to the private sector unions (Johnson and Libecap, 1994). The first advantage that they have is the ability to exert pressure and influence the government -- who is their member's employer -- than can the private sector unions, this they do by utilizing the political process. Through the unions the workers elect politicians who then act as their "managers" when negotiating contracts, they therefore literally handpick those who….....