Correspondence and office files, 1964-1967
Scope and Content of the Subseries
This subseries includes Usery's correspondence as Grand Lodge Representative for the IAM, a post he held from 1956 to February 1969. Usery's weekly reports and expense statements, chronologically arranged, detail his activities as the GLR. The files also include letters from such IAM officers as J. C. McGlon, General Vice President, some reference copies of contracts, and carbons of correspondence from the IAM's Washington, D. C. central office copied to Usery and others. The handwritten weekly reports provide daily accounts of Usery's activities as an organizer and union representative. This subseries ends with "GLR Usery's Report Regarding Assignments" from January 1969, directly before his move to Washington as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor-Management Relations. This memorandum serves as a brief of Usery's duties during this time period as the "coordinator appointed by the International President [IAM, Siemiller]" for negotiating national contracts with such companies as Boeing, General Dynamics Convair and Electronics, Douglas and McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed, Aerojet, and Trans World Airlines. In this same digest of activities, Usery outlines the status of "local agreements at the [Kennedy] Space Center," with companies including Aircraft Services, Inc., Bendix, Air Products, RCA, and Linde. Usery's continuing involvement in organizing campaigns extended from obvious space-related companies such as McDonnell-Douglas Florida Division, Martin-Marietta, and Aerojet, to the "Greyhound Tour Escort Drivers" and "tractor and truck drivers" at U. S. Sugar in Clewiston, Florida. The materials in this series reflect, in Usery's own words, the "almost constant jurisdictional disputes between Union, including some from time to time between Machinists (IAM) locals and companies [sic]," but they also mirror the positive working relationships Usery so carefully developed with local members, the IAM hierarchy and the management within these same companies.
Related material that had been retained in the Usery and Associates offices can be found in Series IV, Subseries E.
Dates
- Creation: 1964-1967
Creator
- From the Collection: Usery, W. J., Jr., 1923-2016 (Person)
Restrictions on Access
Collection is open for research use.
Extent
From the Sub-Series: 1.75 Linear Feet (in 4 boxes)
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Repository
100 Decatur St., S.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
404-413-2880
404-413-2881 (Fax)
archives@gsu.edu