Carter signs Civil Service Reform Act, establishing statutory federal employee collective bargaining rights

On October 13, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act, codifying federal employee collective bargaining rights into statute for the first time. The law created the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to enforce those rights. It gave most federal workers the right to organize and bargain collectively over working conditions -- though not wages, which Congress still set, and not strikes, which remained illegal. The law included a narrow national security exception in 5 U.S.C. 7103(b) designed for agencies like the CIA -- the same provision Trump invoked in EO 14251 in 2025.