President Roosevelt articulated his position on the collective bargaining of Federal government employees at a press conference on July 9, 1937, at which he recounted his experiences working with employee representatives while serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Wilson Administration.

The President then articulated the distinction between Federal employees and non-governmental workers, particularly emphasizing the responsibility of the former to the citizenry and the limitations placed on the scope of collective bargaining by the fact that Congress actually sets the wage scale for Federal workers.

The opportunity then presented itself a short time later for the President to more formally set forth the Administration's position when Luther C. Steward, President of the National Federation of Employees, asked Roosevelt to attend the organization's twentieth annual convention. 

President Roosevelt, through White House secretary William D. Hassett, solicited a draft response from the head of the Civil Service Commission, particularly emphasizing the points he had made in his earlier press conference on the subject. The draft reply to Mr. Steward was personally reviewed by the Attorney General and then sent to Mr. Steward by the President on August 16, 1937. 

The White House released the letter publicly in September, and it became the Administration's official position on the collective bargaining of Federal government employees.

In FDR's Words

No statements as to FDR’s views on collective bargaining for state or municipal workers were found among his papers as Governor of New York or as President.

It should be pointed out, however, that the President had a much more expansive view of the rights to collective bargaining of workers not engaged in Federal employment, as can be seen by the following statements:

"It is now beyond partisan controversy that it is a fundamental individual right of a worker to associate himself with other workers and to bargain collectively with his employer."
Address at San Diego Exposition, October 2, 1935

"Cooperation with labor as well as with business is essential to the continuation of the programs we are working out for a more stable and more satisfactory industrial life in this country. I have on a number of occasions urged the necessity, as well as the soundness, of furthering the principle of collective bargaining as between labor and management."
A Greeting to the American Federation of Labor, February 11, 1935.