B. WORK PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 1956 The 1956 appropriation request for the National Labor Relations Board makes no allowance for possible legislative changes. The request is based on an estimated decrease in cases filed, of approximately 6 percent in 1955, and approximately 9 percent in 1956 from the number filed during fiscal year 1954. It is estimated that most of this decrease will occur in representation cases. The agency's objectives during fiscal years 1955 and 1956 will be to retain the reduced level of pending caseload achieved during 1954 in the regional offices and in the court enforcement functions and to concentrate on reduction of that level for trial examiner and legal assistant functions. The work produced per employee during fiscal year 1955 will probably be no greater than recent experience. During this time the agency will continue to concentrate on providing a more comprehensive consideration to each case; for fiscal year 1956 it is estimated that stress will again be placed on the need for increasing the statistical performance per employee while retaining the level of the previous objective. It is estimated that improvements will be realized in all operating units in fiscal year 1956 over fiscal year 1955. The best single statistical benchmark for measuring the agency's efficiency is the average time required to process cases. It should be noted that the full effect of this type of statistics by a situation such as that described above will not appear until at least 1 year later. The following table shows the time (expressed in days) required to process cases from filing by the parties to Board decision: Mr. FARMER. Also, if I may, I would like to insert in the record a letter which we wrote to Senator Hill as chairman of the subcommittee, requesting the restoration of the $150,000 that the House cut from the President's request. Senator HILL. That will go in the record. (The letter referred to follows:) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Hon. LISTER HILL, Chairman, Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR HILL: The National Labor Relations Board requests the Senate Labor, Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations Subcommittee to consider restoring the full amount of the House cut to the pending appropriation item for this agency for fiscal year 1956. House action on Monday, March 21, 1955, approved the House Appropriations Committee recommendation to reduce the President's appropriation request for this agency from $8,150,000 to $8 million. This request, then, in effect, is that your subcommittee consider restoring the $150,000 to the pending appropriation item. The agency believes that consideration should be given to the fact that it has been trying to reduce its needs for appropriations by increasing efficiency and performance of employees. The National Labor Relations Board believes that the President's request for $8,150,000 is necessary for the agency to properly perform its functions under the Statute. During the past 6 months, unfair labor practice cases filed with the agency have increased appreciably; instead of the originally estimated 5,880 unfair labor practice cases for fiscal year 1955, it appears now that the agency will receive approximately 6,250 such cases. While there has been some decrease in the filings of representation cases, it is readily apparent that the increase in unfair labor practice cases filed with the agency more than offsets in terms of costs and appropriation requirements, the decrease in representation-type cases. The President's estimate of $8,150,000 was a conservative estimate of the requirements for the operation of this agency. The increase in unfair labor practice cases which promises to continue into fiscal 1956, and other developments in the field of organized labor could further increase the actual case intake. If the committee has any questions, the agency would appreciate the opportunity for a hearing. Very truly yours, GUY FARMER, Chairman. EFFECT OF HOUSE REDUCTION Senator HILL. You might tell us just exactly what this $150,000 would mean. Is this for personnel, for positions, or what? Mr. FARMER. That will be distributed among personal services and miscellaneous expenses. Of course, we concede that the amount of $150,000 is not a major cut in our present request, but we feel that this budget, as we explained to the House committee when we appeared there, is a very tight budget and that any cut in it would incur the risk that we would not have sufficient funds to carry out the functions which Congress delegated to us under the act which we administer. W feel that more strongly because we have found since we made our original estimates for the Bureau of the Budget that we had underestimated, probably underestimated rather substantially, our case load, particularly-and this is true in the area of unfair-laborpractice cases-based on our 9 months' experience in fiscal 1955. If that continues into 1956, we will have more unfair-labor-practice-case charges filed with this agency than we have ever had during the history of the Board, I believe, substantially more than we estimated at the time we made our original estimate. The unfair-labor-practice cases are the most difficult cases. They require greater expenditure of time and money to handle them. They are important cases that should be handled expeditiously, so we feeland this reflects the feeling of the entire agency-that the $8,150,000 which the President recommended for us is just about the minimum that we should have in order to carry out our statutory obligations and, therefore, we would like very much to have the House cut restored. LOSS IN PERSONNEL OF 11 POSITIONS Senator HILL. Would this $150,000 affect the Counsel's Office? Mr. KAMMHOLZ. Yes; it would, Mr. Chairman. Senator HILL. How would it affect the Counsel's Office? Mr. KAMMHOLZ. I believe the figures indicate a loss in personnel to us of 11 positions. Senator HILL. Eleven positions? Mr. KAMMHOLZ. That is right. Mr. FARMER. And 10 positions on the Board members' staffs. Senator HILL. Are there 21 positions involved in this $150,000? Mr. FARMER. Yes. Senator HILL. I believe you spoke, too, Mr. Chairman, of miscellaneous expenses. What would come under that? Mr. FARMER. Items for travel, and for printing and reproduction, for example. BACKLOG OF CASES Senator HILL. What is your docket now so far as your cases are concerned? How current are you? Mr. FARMER. We have a rather complicated situation at the moment. So far as the Board itself is concerned and the cases pending before us, we are on a reasonably current basis, but because there was a 3 months' hiatus between the tenures of our latest General Counsel and the present one, there is a substantial backlog of cases in the field where charges have been filed on which no action could be taken, that is, there will be complaints issued or those cases will be settled or dismissed. There is a substantial backlog of cases in the field operation under the General Counsel's Office. TRAVEL Senator THYE. What are the travel requirements and who is involved in traveling? Mr. FARMER. Travel is primarily in the field offices. We have 21 regional offices located in strategic industrial areas throughout the country. We have one in Minneapolis, for example. The Minneapolis office is one in which I was located for 15 months when I was first with the Board. It covers four States-Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Iowa-which, as you know, is a large geographical area. The travel is involved with our field personnel who have to go into the town or the locality where the labor dispute arises and make an investigation or hold an election. Senator THYE. Therefore, if you do not have sufficient funds, your entire operation is either limited, or curtailed, or delayed? Mr. FARMER. Yes, sir. Senator THYE. Delayed until you just have a quarterly delay so as to continue on until you get into the next quarter or you get into the next fiscal year's appropriation, and all of it adds to and complicates the administrative function of your department. Mr. FARMER. Yes, sir. Senator HILL. Have you any questions, Senator Potter? Senator POTTER. I have no questions. Senator HILL. Gentlemen, we are certainly very much obliged to you. Thank you very much. Mr. FARMER. Thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to be here. Senator HILL. Is there anything you wanted to add? Mr. FARMER. Mr. Kammholz, do you have anything? Mr. KAMMHOLZ. No. I think Mr. Farmer covered the territory adequately. I join in his comments with humility. I say with humility because I have been on the job just a short period of time and he and his colleagues are much better prepared to state the requirements than I am. Senator HILL. It is very nice to have had you gentlemen. NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD STATEMENTS OF FRANCIS A. O'NEILL, JR., CHAIRMAN; EUGENE C. THOMPSON, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY; M. D. LEWIS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD APPROPRIATION ESTIMATE Salaries and expenses: For expenses necessary for the National Mediation Board, including stenographic reporting services as authorized by section 15 of the Act of August 2, 1946 (5 U. S. C. 55a), [$425,500] $435,000. Amounts available for obligation (Balances for June 30, 1954, are as certified under sec. 1311, Public Law 663) Arbitration and emergency boards: For expenses necessary for arbitration boards established under section 7 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U. S. C. 157), and emergency boards appointed by the President pursuant to section 10 of said Act (45 U. S. C. 160), including stenographic reporting services as authorized by section 15 of the Act of August 2, 1946 (5 U. S. C. 55a), [$300,000] $250,000. Amounts available for obligation (Balances for June 30, 1954, are as certified under sec. 1311, Public Law 663) Senator HILL. We will next hear the National Mediation Board. Mr. O'Neill, it is nice to have you here, sir. We will be happy to have you proceed in your own way. I believe the House gave you exactly what the budget recommended. Mr. O'NEILL. That is correct. Senator HILL. In all three items. Mr. O'NEILL. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. Senator HILL. Do you want to give us a summation of your situation? Mr. O'NEILL. Mr. Chairman, we asked for $8,500 to completely fill one of the items. That is for one mediator's post and the Bureau of the Budget and the House went along with us. As to our Arbitration and Emergency Board fund, that is always estimated from year to year because we never know when an emergency will arise. That fund for the current year is $200,000. We felt that we could get along with $250,000 and it was reduced accordingly. Our Special Adjustment Board program is proceeding along and it has leveled off to the point where we can estimate more accurately the amounts needed for those Boards, so that was one of the controlling factors in that reduction of $50,000. |