The 1960s also saw rapid growth of unions of government employees at federal, state, and local levels. This development was spurred on by an executive order from President Kennedy in 1962 declaring the right of federal employees to join unions and negotiate on many issues, as well as by various statutes in the states and cities providing for various forms of collective bargaining with employees.
In 1967 Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), resigned as vice president of the AFL-CIO, declaring that it had become "the comfortable, complacent custodian of the status quo." The UAW then stopped paying dues and was expelled from the AFL-CIO in 1968, marking the first major schism in the ranks of the parent union since the expulsion of the Teamsters. The UAW rejoined the AF'L-CIO in 1981.
In the mid-1960s the United Farm Workers (UFW) began to organize some of the migrant farm laborers in California. After a two-year strike, some wine-grape growers in California reached a collective bargaining agreement with the UFW in 1967. A major figure in organizing the UFW to unionize farm laborers was Cesar Chavez, who led several successful boycotts and strikes. His organization persuaded 26 table-grape growers to accept union contacts in 1970, effectively organizing 65 percent of that industry.
Union support was instrumental in the 1970 enactment of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act. The act empowered the secretary of labor to establish and enforce workplace health and safety standards and to respond to employee complaints about health and safety issues.