[4] The order in some ways went further than the Wagner Act, instructing agencies to develop informal relationships with employee organizations (so long as they are not corrupt or undemocratic) and not to campaign against them.
An impasse can be resolved by appeals to mediators, fact-finders, or a higher authority[3]—or it can be ignored by management, and the status quo allowed to continue.
This expansion led President Lyndon B. Johnson to form the Presidential Review Committee on Employee-Management Relations in the Federal Service.
[2] Labor historians believe that Executive Order 10988 served as a model for public sector unionism, even for local, municipal and state employees.
Membership in AFSCME increased substantially during the 1960s and 1970s, and 22 states legalized collective bargaining for public sector workers.