 In 1962, President John Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, upgrading the status of unions of federal workers.After 1960 public sector unions grew rapidly and secured good wages and high pensions for their members.While manufacturing and farming steadily declined, state- and local-government employment quadrupled from 4 million workers in 1950 to 12 million in 1976 and 16.6 million in 2009.