BILL USERY is probably one of the great mediators of our time. He is patient, understanding, fair, and very strong. You see, the thing is, too, that he is able to-I am speaking about Usery--he has the ability not only to negotiate but also in getting this word out to the truck-drivers and their owners and so forth, the independent operators, that they can get a full tank of gas in 80 percent now, getting the word out to them also that a 6 percent increase in rates is allowed, which means that the cost-price squeeze they are under has been alleviated.
All right, so their legitimate complaints are being met. The point is that this is not like you have no problem, for example, with Fitzsimmons and the Teamsters. He gets the word to 400,000 people, and they pledge, in a peaceful way, with the policies that we have.
Here you have got a bunch of people not represented, so with all of the problems that we have with organized labor, let me say, as George has often said--and I agree--it is better to have a group that is responsible that you can deal with, no matter how tough they are, than one where you can't have anybody that can make the contract. Isn't that what the lesson to this is?
What I was saying with Usery, Usery also has that rare ability which so many of us lack, politicians have a little more than some of you statesmen, but that rare ability--you know, in the meeting yesterday he said, "Now look, let me take this statement and put it in the language the drivers will understand."
Now, that doesn't talk down to them, but he says there are certain ways you talk. He says, "I know how these fellows react." Rather than using surcharge or pass-through or something like that, they understand a cost-price squeeze. They understand you can get a full tank at 80 percent of the stops--you know, things of that sort.
GEORGE P. SHULTZ [Secretary of the Treasury]. Well, Usery has another characteristic, he can sit there all night long.
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, stamina. He has got as much stamina as Kissinger.
Note: The President spoke at 10:35 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White House where he was meeting with Secretary Shultz and other Administration officials to discuss plans for the meeting of oil-consuming nations which was held the following week.
The remarks took place during a portion of the meeting when reporters and photographers were invited to be present.
In his remarks, the President was referring to W. J. Usery, Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and Frank E. Fitzsimmons, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
On February 8, 1974, the President met with Mr. Usery, Attorney General William B. Saxbe, Secretary of Transportation Claude S. Brinegar, and Administrator William E. Simon of the Federal Energy Office to discuss measures to alleviate conditions causing the truck stoppages by independent operators. On the same day, the White House released a transcript of their news briefing on the meeting.
An opening statement made by Mr. Simon at a February 5 news briefing and remarks by Deputy Press Secretary Gerald L. Warren on February 7 with regard to the truck stoppages are printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 10, pp. 177 and 190).
Richard Nixon, Remarks About Negotiations To End Independent Truck Stoppages. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/256291
