President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 on January 17, 1962. This Presidential Executive Order recognized the right of federal employees to collectively bargaining. At the time, very few workers at any level of government had won the right to bargain collectively with their employers. Federal action helped inspire many states and localities to follow suit, allowing their own workers to organize. Executive Order 10988 was later replaced and expanded on by President Richard Nixon’s Executive Order 11491 in 1969 by adding additional oversight.