PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS AND ESTIMATED COST/BENEFIT EVALUATION There is no question that the labor-management community is being well served when the need for mediation exists. Each year the Service receives hundreds of letters from representatives of both labor and management testifying to the effectiveness of the assistance given the parties in their negotiations. These unsolicited testimonials are a sound but nonstatistical indication of the effectiveness of the mediation program. Endeavoring, however, to relate the cost of operating the mediation program to the benefits achieved to the economy, in terms of work stoppages shortened or averted, is quite complicated because of the many imponderables present. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, as stated in its "Handbook of Methods," does not attempt to measure the cost of strikes in terms of the amount of production and wages lost because of the many complex and interrelated factors for which information is not readily available. Based on certain assumptions, however, a rough approximation of cost effectiveness may be attempted although obviously no precise validation is possible. The following data, therefore, are presented with this important qualification in mind. A. Wage Losses Eliminated or Minimized with Active 1. Cases Settled Without Strikes as a Result of In Fiscal Year 1977, strike deadlines were B. 2. 3. Cases Settled Without Strikes Prior to Deadline In Fiscal Year 1977, 5,213 additional active Strike Cases In Which Strike Time Losses Were That actual strike time losses are minimized Assuming that these strikes would have per- Summary of Savings Due to Program Effectiveness and In terms of man-days, estimated total year strike FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1978. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD WITNESSES JOHN H. FANNING, CHAIRMAN JOHN S. IRVING, GENERAL COUNSEL JOHN E. HIGGINS, JR., DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL WILLIAM LUBBERS, SOLICITOR ROBERT VOLGER, ACTING EXECUTIVE SECRETARY THOMAS W. KESSEL, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE ERNEST RUSSELL, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION LEE D. VINCENT, COMPTROLLER Mr. NATCHER. The committee will come to order. We take up at this time the request for the National Labor Relations Board and we have before the committee the Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, John H. Fanning, along with Mr. John S. Irving, the General Counsel of the NLRB, and others. Mr. Fanning, first, if you will, please tell us who you have with you. Mr. FANNING. Immediately to my right, Mr. Lee Vincent, the Comptroller; to his right, Mr. John Irving, the General Counsel of the agency; and to his right, John Higgins, Mr. Irving's Deputy. Mr. NATCHER. Thank you, Mr. Fanning. Now, I have had an opportunity along with the staff to examine your statements; you have excellent statements. With your permission, we will insert these statements in the record in their entirety and take up the questions. [The statements referred to follow:] |