W. J. Usery, Jr.

Source: White House Press Release - January 22, 1976

The President today announced his intention to nominate W. J. Usery, of Macon, Georgia, to be Secretary of Labor. He will succeed John T. Dunlop who has resigned. Mr. Usery is currently Special Assistant to the President for Labor-Management Negotiations.

Mr. Usery was born on December 21, 1923, in Hardwick, Georgia. He attended Georgia Military College and Mercer University, and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Georgia Military College in 1971 for his work in labor-management relations. He served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946.

In 1949, Mr. Usery joined the Armstrong Cork Company as a maintenance machinist and remained with the firm until 1955. He became grand lodge representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), AFL-CIO in 1956. He was assigned as IAM's special representative at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Test Facilities in 1956, and from 1961 to 1967 he was the union's representative on the President's Missile Sites Labor Committee at the Kennedy Space Center and at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He also served as coordinator for union activities at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. Mr. Usery helped form the Cape Kennedy Labor-Management Relations Council in 1967 and became its Chairman in 1968.

Mr. Usery was appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor-Management Relations in February, 1969. He was appointed Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in February, 1973. He became Special Assistant to the President in January, 1974, and served until August of that year,

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Last Updated: Tuesday, July 14, 1998