Reading Room Document

Application of Executive Order 11491 to Federal Attorneys.

In this memo, OLC responded to several questions posed by the Federal Labor Relations Council concerning possible amendments to Executive Order 11491: specifically, whether attorneys should only be represented in separate attorney unions or whether they may be included in “mixed” unions (allowing attorney and non-attorney members). If these attorneys were allowed to join mixed unions, the memo considered whether attorneys should have a separate vote within the union or vote with all other professionals in their unit. Recognizing that attorneys’ employing relationships with agencies vary greatly, the OLC opined that the appropriateness of their inclusion in mixed unions should be determined on a case-by-case basis, and that the executive order should be amended to provide that attorneys would be included in mixed unions only if a majority of the attorneys in the appropriate unit voted for the inclusion.

May 23, 1974