AYSPS establishes American Workplace Chair
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The programs of the new labor policy chair will encompass a broad range of contemporary workplace and workforce issues. "We're interested in the effects of migration on the workplace, offshore placement of jobs, healthcare costs as an impediment to the growth of the labor force, workforce development issues and women in the workforce," says Dean Roy Bahl. "We will fill the chair with a senior scholar who embraces one or more of these areas of research."

"The greatest asset a company has is its people," says Usery, who is concerned about today's workplace. "We will use the resources and contacts available to us through this chair to design workplace policies that will go well into the next century in America."

Usery says his greatest hope is that the new chair will successfully bring all people in the workplace together to solve issues. "We need people who – without bias – will look at the problems facing us in the workplace and will work to build consensus in addressing them. This work cuts across all areas: law, education, health, public administration and economics," he says. "How we deal with workplace differences, how we organize them and refine them and bring attention to them, will be unique to this position."

From expert consensus builder to university fellow

Usery's circuitous 27-year journey to the academic world began when his term as Labor Secretary ended, he says. "There was not another job waiting. I hadn't looked for a position and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do next."

He called his friend, former labor secretary and Secretary of State George Shultz, who suggested he seek an academic appointment. "Shultz told me I should be sharing my background at a university. And I told him that I didn't know whether I wanted any part of a university at that point. That's when I decided to form Bill Usery Associates. But I never forgot his advice," says Usery.

"I was fortunate to build a very good business somewhere in the middle – between labor and management – while consulting on responsible labor relations. As a result, I did a lot of work for every other president after President Ford." Usery points to the Toyota/GM agreement as one of his greatest accomplishments. "Not only was it the first major joint venture to bring new automobile production to the U.S. at a time the country was flush with imports, it established a foundation for future relations," he says.

Usery credits a chain of events started by staff and advisors to Georgia State University for changing his mind about working with a university. A visit from Georgia State University President Carl Patton, Vice President Tom Lewis and former Governor Joe Frank Harris secured his commitment to found the Usery Center. His papers reside in the Pullen Library's Southern Labor Archives.

In the last year, he says, the thought of making a greater personal commitment to Georgia State University had taken on added significance.

"I have been involved over the last 50 years with giants that grew out of World War II, the War Labor Board, national defense and the Atomic Energy days. There have been huge, significant changes in the world and the workforce. You can't go to the workplace today and look at it as it was in 1952, when I first came into the business. You can't look at it as the same type of workplace it was in the 1970s, when I was Secretary of Labor," he says.

"Everything has changed. We need a place for people to address workforce issues, a prestigious place they can go to and say, 'that's the place to go to talk to experts who are trying to find solutions and to build consensus for the workplace'.

"I do think, in remembering what George Shultz said earlier, that the best place to share the unique experiences I've had is through the university," says Usery. "I certainly agree that one of the finest schools here is the school of policy studies. Andrew Young's name is a great name for this school, because he has certainly done great things."