anticipate a new contract for our Merchant Marine? Have you used any of this philosophy with the Teamsters coming up? Mr. USERY. The Merchant Marines have a number of labor organizations that in the past have had a number of strikes. We have been meeting with the parties to get them together to discuss mutual problems. We call this preventive work. Not only have we been participating in these meetings, but Secretary Dunlop was also participating. We have nationally known persons such as Dave Cole, a former FMCS Director and now consultant to me, working with unions and management trying to do missionary work in order to prevent a strike. We believe the future of improving labor relations in this country will come from better understanding. We are also working in the construction industry. We are trying to get the unions to understand the contractors' problems and vice versa. ADDITIONAL POSITIONS Mr. PATTEN. You are asking for 76 new permanent positions for 1976. How many positions do you have today and how many are filled? Mr. USERY. We have 490, Mr. Chairman, permanent full-time employees on board and 4 commitments, and we are authorized 499 positions. We also have four temporaries on board. We have recently had some retirements. In fact, we have constantly stayed pretty close to the maximum number authorized because of our increased workload. Mr. PATTEN. How many new permanent positions has Congress given you in the last 2 fiscal years? Mr. LEJKO. In the fiscal 1974 supplemental, we were given 52 additional positions. During fiscal 1975, 29 additional positions were authorized; however, 13 of those positions were withdrawn by the OMB. Mr. PATTEN. How many of these 76 new positions are mediators? Mr. USERY. Thirty-seven are mediators-we would have full-time mediators. ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR THE 76 POSITIONS Mr. PATTEN. How much money in the budget request relates exclusively to the 76 new positions? Mr. LEJKO. The additional funds for the personnel cost, Mr. Chairman, amounts to $522,000 as a net cost for salaries. There is an additional $182,000 for personnel benefits. LAPSE RATE Mr. PATTEN. What is the average lapse rate for the 76 new jobs? Mr. LEJKO. This year, sir, the lapse rate is 50 percent, calculated at the request of OMB. CASES IN PROCESS Mr. PATTEN. Do you know on page 8 of your justifications it is indicated that your mediation backlog is increased? Do you think the backlog will get worse? 52-899 O-75-4 Mr. LEJKO. The number of cases in process has been increasing because the caseload has been increasing. However, the number of cases in process fluctuates. As of March 31 this year, there were 6,681 cases in process compared with 6,910 as of June 30, 1974. Mr. PATTEN. How long does a fellow have to wait to get the benefits of your service? If the doctors are striking up in New Yorkincidentally, did they ask you to help them on that? Mr. SCEARCE. That, of course, is under the health care and we mandatorily have to go into the case. Mr. USERY. We by law get a 30-day notice. We assign someone to that case immediately. The mediator may have five or six cases that he is mediating at the same time. He may be mediating them and monitoring 40 other negotiations. If there is about to be a strike in another case we will reassign it. We try our best to get a mediator into a dispute prior to the expiration of a contract if we have any thought there is going to be a strike in that case. CASES PER MEDIATOR Mr. PATTEN. How much-how many cases does an average mediator handle in 1 year? Would you be able to give a figure now? Mr. USERY. Yes, sir. We normally say 100 assignments per mediator per year. Some may go as high as 130 cases, some may come less than that, but the average is about 100 cases a year. One case involving a multi-industry or a large industry could be quite complex. Where we have consolidated a number of cases, the mediator could spend several months on one case. Last year as a result of the extreme workload, a number of our people not only had to cancel leave and vacation but did not get any time off at all because of the heavy workload. AVERAGE SALARY Mr. PATTEN. What is the average salary for a mediator? Mr. LEJKO. For fiscal year 1976, $21,684. That is for the Service in total. I do not have it broken down Mr. PATTEN. I just want an idea. RECRUITMENT OF MEDIATORS Where do you find your new mediators? From the legal profession? Schoolteachers? Mr. USERY. We recruit two different ways. We now have a class of mediator-interns who are participating in a training program in the national office. These are people who have majored in college in labor relations and have spent some time working in the labor relations field. We bring them on board and train them. The other type person we recruit is a professional. Many of our mediators come from the business or labor community and have had several years experience in labor-management relations. Some come from the academic world with considerable experience teaching labor relations. We have, we think, a very good recruiting program. We try to be selective as to background and understanding of labor laws. We look for an individual who can be tactful with people and one who can conciliate and mediate. Most of our mediators come from the labor-management community. We do have a number of mediators who have legal backgrounds. NEW POSITIONS REQUESTED Mr. PATTEN. Will you provide for the record a schedule of permanent positions for these 76 jobs? Mr. USERY. Yes. [The information follows:] ADDITIONAL POSITIONS BY GRADE INCLUDED IN THE FISCAL YEAR 1976 BUDGET REQUEST Mr. PATTEN. Let us get back to that new region you want to set up. Will you tell us why you want to set up another regional office after all these years, another layer of bureaucracy? Mr. USERY. Mr. Chairman, on the west coast we have what we call region 7. We are proposing to establish a region 8, in Seattle. Recently due to the pipeline and other activities in Alaska we established an office in Alaska. We used to service this area from Seattle, but due to the activity we had to open an office in Alaska. We have a regional director in San Francisco and he has too much geographical area to supervise. In addition to that, when health care. legislation was passed, the regional director has additional responsibilities he has to carry out under that act. We find that the region 7 area is too broad for one regional director to cover. I feel it must be divided not only as to management but supervisory activities. SPACE RENTAL Mr. PATTEN. How much money is in this budget for rental costs and how does that compare with 1975? Mr. LEJKO. Fiscal year 1975 rental costs are estimated at $1,260,000 and fiscal 1976 $1,340,000. Mr. PATTEN. Are you paying rent up in Alaska? Mr. LEJKO. Yes, sir. Mr. PATTEN. We have a lot of room at some of those military installations, you know. We have beautiful facilities up there. That would not serve your purpose? Mr. LEJKO. Irrespective of whether we already are located in a federally owned building or elsewhere, we still pay the cost of rental to the GSA. Mr. PATTEN. Even if it is Army? Mr. USERY. Yes, sir. I might say, Mr. Chairman, we pay sometimes more than what would be the rent elsewhere. Whatever GSA's amount is, we have to pay that. Mr. PATTEN. We have some thoughts on this, too. Mr. USERY. May I say something further on that? Besides providing professional mediation service, we are trying to provide a place where people can meet. We are trying now to upgrade our services to where we can provide adequate meeting places instead of meeting in lawyers' offices or in union halls. Mr. PATTEN. You do not have to press that. I know fully what you are saying. TRAVEL INCREASE You are seeking an increase of $385,000 for travel, a 32 percent increase. Why do you need an increase of that size? Mr. LEJKO. The additional $300,000 in travel funds are needed in connection with the increased workload on health case and other cases, for the additional 76 positions and $85,000 for travel expenses related to the boards of inquiry health care cases. Mr. PATTEN. Inflation is now subsiding somewhat and yet your travel request assumes a 10-percent inflation factor. Are you not inflating your inflation a little bit? Mr. LEJKO, No, sir, the costs have been going up. EQUIPMENT Mr. PATTEN. You want an increase of $50,000 for equipment to be used in connection with the 76 new jobs. How did you compute this increase? Mr. LEJKO. This is computed on the basis of past standards that we have used. It costs roughly $900 to outfit an office and for additional conference facilities which would be required for the new region 8 and other field locations proposed for expansion. MISSION OF THE SERVICE Mr. PATTEN. You know, Mr. Usery, one could go on talking about your service and make an appraisal of it. I do not have any doubt that it has turned out to be good. I will not vote to abolish your agency today. I think it is a good service. Mr. USERY. I appreciate your saying that. I believe so much in the institution of collective bargaining. We have to get increased productivity. We have to have sharper people in the field to help educate and provide the education to understand that. We really do have an outstanding mission to carry out. INCREASED WORKLOAD Mr. PATTEN. Mr. Casey. Do you have any questions? Mr. USERY. We expect more work, Mr. Casey. We can provide a service by trying to explain to each side. So overall, I would expect not only the normal increase, but I would expect us to have an even greater workload in the coming years. Mr. CASEY. In talking to a few union members a while back I had an indication from them that in view of the unemployment rate and the. number of people available ready to take a job now, they did not care what kind, the union was getting a little afraid there would be pressure on them now that the contracts are beginning to expire, resulting in deadlocks. Is that what you foresee? Mr. USERY. Yes, sir. Mr. CASEY. You do not get into it unless you are called in? Mr. USERY. No, sir, we get into a lot of cases we are not called into. First, if it is a national case we would on our own go in, or if it affects a community we will go in. We can become involved at the request of either one or both parties. Because of our limited resources, we try to determine if there has been a history of strikes and we try to not only handpick the right mediator for that case but get in early. Mr. PATTEN. Mr. Michel. WAGE LOSSES Mr. MICHEL. I would at the outset like to compliment you on the well detailed set of justifications you have provided us. If all agencies provided similar documents, we could perhaps dispense with these hearings and still have sufficient information to make our funding decisions. I note with interest the estimate you prepared showing a savings of $608 million in wage losses avoided in fiscal year 1974 as the result of the efforts of your agency. Have you any figures available as to wage losses which actually occurred because your services were not able to forestall strikes? A failure rate, in other words? Mr. USERY. There are no figures available as to actual wages lost. However, of the 1,990 strike cases in which FMCS mediators participated during 1971 it is estimated that 6.9 million man-days of additional idleness were avoided. Mr. MICHEL. What percentage of the disputes which resulted in strikes were brought before you for mediatory assistance? In other words, to what extent are your services not being used where they might be helpful in preventing strikes? Mr. USERY. During the first 9 months of fiscal year 1975, of the 2,308 strike situations which came to the attention of this Service, there were |