Franklin D. Roosevelt: Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Agai...

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Document Archive 112 - Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Against Strikes in
• Public Papers Federal Service.
• State of the Union August 16, 1937
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• Press Conferences My dear Mr. Steward:
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• Proclamations As I am unable to accept your kind invitation to be present on the occasion of the Twentieth Jubilee Convention of the National
• Signing Statements Federation of Federal Employees, I am taking this method of sending greetings and a message.
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Administration Policy Reading your letter of July 14, 1937, I was especially interested in the timeliness of your remark that the manner in which the
• Debates activities of your organization have been carried on during the past two decades "has been in complete consonance with the best
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traditions of public employee relationships." Organizations of Government employees have a logical place in Government
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• 2009 Transition
• 2001 Transition The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of
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policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural
Media Archive and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the
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Government.
Elections
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Florida 2000 All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It
Links has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it
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Month and Year employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
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Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon
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employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the
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conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of
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public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied.
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Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a
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Document Archive shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government."
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I congratulate the National Federation of Federal Employees the twentieth anniversary of its founding and trust that the convention will, in every way, be
successful.

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Very sincerely yours,

Limit by Year Mr. Luther C. Steward,

From: 1789
To : 2010 President, National Federation of Federal Employees,
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30 10 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C.

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documents from the Office of Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web:
the Press Secretary http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15445.
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