Former US Secretary of Labor W.J. (Bill) Usery was welcomed back to Bermuda yesterday as this year's guest speaker at the Labour Day celebrations.

The top American labour mediator will speak on Monday about his life in labour-management relations, which has spanned more than 50 years and included no less than five presidential appointments, and work that brought him to the Island more than 20 years ago.

Through his work he has participated in hundreds of collective bargaining disputes in a wide variety of private industries, as well as in the public sector.

He was Secretary of Labor under President Gerald Ford from 1976 to 1977 and served as special assistant to the President for labour management negotiations during the administrations of Presidents Ford and Nixon.

During that time he coordinated the Federal Government's labour-management relations activities in both the private and public sectors of the economy.

Under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Mr. Usery was the industrial union representative on the Presidents' missile sites labour committee at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Alabama.

And under President Bill Clinton, Mr. Usery served from 1993 to 1995 as a member of the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations, which investigated the state of worker-management relations and labour law in the US.

He said: "It's my honour and my pleasure to be back in Bermuda and to be here in Hamilton.

"Some 20 odd years' ago I came here to mediate a dispute which was quite controversial and quite serious and now to be invited back...it's just a marvellous occasion.

"To be invited back as speaker for this event is such an honour. Every time I come, I think the people get even more friendly and nicer to me."

He said during his time in labour relations, he had seen and dealt with every aspect but said it was paramount for workers and companies to appreciate that they were interdependent on each other.

"We depend on each other and we need each other," he said.

Mr. Usery said as an indication of his excitement at being back in Bermuda he said he had spent longer than usual writing his speech for Monday.

And he said when labour organisations in Bermuda, along with Government and the private sector, had come together to name the celebrations this year Labour is Me, it showed that Bermuda had the right attitude towards its worker relations.

He added: "I rate the labour unions here very very highly. I try to keep up with all the labour unions around the world and I try to know what is going on in various places and I think the unions here compare very well."

He said while Bermuda had changed a great deal over the years, the importance placed on labour relations had never changed.

He added: "The Government has changed and the types of business has changed. Bermuda is not as dependent on tourism as it once was, although it's a very big economic factor here.

"But the world is changing too, and we are in a global market place and as I will try to talk about on Monday, we (labour and management) are interdependent on each other. Economy is so important to us as we are all seeking a better way of life. It's a time when we need to work together and pull together. "That's what is so good about the theme of this years celebrations in Bermuda Labour is Me."

The celebrations will start outside the Bermuda Industrial Union at 11.30 a.m. and will travel to Bernard's Park.