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Born December 21, 1923, in Hardwick, Georgia. Usery attended the Georgia Military College and Mercer university. From 1943 through 1946 Usery served aboard the USS Tutuila in the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet.
In 1948 he worked for the Armstrong Cork Company in Macon, Ga. as a maintenance machinest and remained there until 1956. He joined the International Union of Machinests (IAM), AFL-CIO local 918. He then became a founding member of Local 8 and held a series of local union posts, including the Presidency.
From 1956 to 1969, Usery served as an IAM Grand Lodge representative. His 1st assignment was as the IAM's special representative at Cape Canaveral Air Force Test Facilities in 1956. From 1961-1967 he was the union's representative on the President's Missile Sites Labor Committee at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was the coordinator for union activities at the Manned Spacecraft Center in /Huston, Tx. Usery also assisted in forming the Cape Kennedy Labor-Management Relations Council in 1967 and became its chairman in 1968.
In 1969 Usery was appointed Assistant Labor Secretary of labor and non-labor relations by President Richard M. Nixon. In 1970 Usery helped to resolve a postal strike by by persuading Nixon to name a blue ribbon commission that was acceptable to both parties. From this commission grew the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 which officially created the U.S. Postal Service and gave its workers the right of collective bargaining.
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