Our injury frequency rate was reduced from 19.2 in 1961 to 14.4 in 1966 latest available BEC data-injuries per million man-hours worked.

We have established joint labor-management safety committees both nationally and in installations with more than 100 employees, developed the largest safety training programs within postal history, made major efforts to reduce overweight mailsacks, developed safety standards for leased vehicles, initiated a totally new accident reporting analysis system, undertaken the largest fire survey and fire hazard correction program in postal history, introduced a system of area safety counsellors to service postal installations without full-time safety officers, provided for postal editions of the national safety council's magazine, the Industrial Supervisor, and taken major steps to improve the safety design of all postal office vehicles. We have developed with researchers an acceptable animal repellant for postal use.

Health units

We have increased the number of post office health units. The staff of medical officers and nurses has increased from 44 in 1961 to 67 today and we are in the process of establishing 22 more units so that employees and patrons in all of our very large installations will have ready access to a doctor or nurse should the need arise. Currently we have 36 medical officers and 162 nurses and are aiming for 41 medical doctors and 181 nurses.

Uniforms

The entire uniform program has been overhauled during the past 712 years. We now have better design, better standardization, and better quality control of all uniforms administered through the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at Natick, Mass. We have created a Uniform Advisory Board made up of employee and industry representatives and authorized scores of new uniform items. Clerks, mail handlers, and maintenance employees have been given uniforms for the first time, and a new system of direct payment to vendors, designed to eliminate bad debt problems, is about to go into effect. Employees now receive more, better quality, and better looking uniforms than ever before in history.

Tools

In joint contract negotiations in 1964, agreement was reached that the Post Office Department would furnish each maintenance employee with good-quality tools which they would be required to use on the job and for which they would be accountable. This was a pioneering step forward since it is still a common practice in many areas for employees to furnish their own tools.

Facilities

The Post Office Department physical plant is, indeed, in sad state as regards modernization. Much of our space is in approximately 3,000 Federal buildings, most of which were built during the 1930's, and most of which are monumental rather than functional in design. The lack of adequate postal facilities is one of the most crying needs of the postal service, and we have repeatedly brought this matter to the attention of the Congress.

Since 1961, we have awarded 7.924 contracts for new buildings or major modifications, 90 percent of which specify air conditioning. Of the 28,000 leased and rented buildings occupied, 10,795 are now air conditioned and cover 40.4 million square feet of space. Remaining are 17,251 buildings having 36 million square feet. Of about 3,000 Federal buildings which provide about 50 percent of our space, in each instance where air conditioning is needed, the building has been air conditioned or funds have been authorized for air conditioning.

In fiscal year 1965, a massive 5-year building program to build 4,500 buildings at a cost of between $800 and $900 million was begun. Mail volume has more than doubled in the past 20 years, and the major impact of this tremendous growth fell on first-class offices which handled 93 percent of this mail in approximately the same space as existed in 1942. In addition, the rapid change in transportation methods, particularly from rail to highway, contributed to inadequacies in all types of offices. Postmaster General Watson has put the modernization and building of new facilities at the top of his list, and only yesterday announced a plan to build the largest post office in the history of the world-a $100 million structure in New York City to be completed in

1974.

That is, incidentally, the third major postal facility to be initiated in New York City in the past 4 years, where they have not had a postal facility built in the last 30 years.

During the last 5 years, 4,432 awards have been made to provide 34.8 million square feet of modern postal space. In the next 5 years the projection is to almost double this figure by providing 67.2 million square feet in 5,500 new facilities at the rate of about 1,100 post offices a year, or three a day. Most of these buildings are air conditioned. They are well lighted and parking for employees as well as patrons will be provided in accordance with local zoning requirements. Further, we are giving particular attention to adequate facilities for employee swingrooms, health units, cafeterias, toilets, and training facilities.

In addition to replacing obsolete facilities, the Department has greatly stepped up its efforts to maintain our postal facilities in a clean and orderly condition by issuing up-to-date maintenance handbooks, providing for "job huddle" techniques to obtain housekeeping cooperation from all employees, by establishing good housekeeping clinics at 104 locations to train employees in proper methods of cleaning, by conducting surprise reviews of housekeeping practices at a cross section of post offices, and by awarding good housekeeping citations to those post offices doing an outstanding maintenance and beautification job.

TRAINING

A few years ago training was the stepchild of the Department. No one knows how much training was actually given in 1961 because the figures were not kept, but all knowledgeable people are in agreement that it was infinitesimal compared to today and to the size of the job that needed to be done. Today, training is near the very top of the list of Postmaster General Watson's program for the postal service.

This year, the Department will spend $28 million on training. We now know each and every course that is given in the postal service, where it is given, and how many people participate.

For 2 years, we have been working jointly with our employee unions on a joint labor-management training committee to formulate a comprehensive series of craft training and orientation programs which we are now about ready to begin in post offices throughout the Nation. This will be the largest single training effort ever undertaken by the Department for rank-and-file employees. Moreover, Mr. Watson announced just a few days ago a pioneering program for training 5,000 potential supervisors before their selection to firstline management positions. He also announced the distribution of a handbook, "How To Prepare Yourself for a Supervisory Examination" to over 400,000 persons who are eligible to take the next supervisory examination.

A management intern program has been initiated where the Department, for the first time, has recruited over 120 topnotch college graduates in a specialized training program of from 2 to 4 years' duration, designed to acquaint them with all aspects of the Department's operations. Plans have been approved by the Appropriations Committee to place an additional 150 of these young people in post offices during the coming year.

The capstone of our greatly expanded effort of training and the one of which we are very proud is the creation of the Postal Service Institute to train managerial and supervisory personnel and which is now in its sixth month of operation. When fully operative, the Institute will train up to 65,000 managerial personnel a year in selected locations throughout the Nation. So far, over 15,000 persons, including 800 here in Washington, have received some form of training under Institute auspices.

IMPROVEMENTS IN EMPLOYEE OPPORTUNITIES UNDER FEDERAL MERIT

Promotions

SYSTEMS

On March 30, 1961, a merit promotion system was introduced for the first time into the postal service. Selection for supervisory jobs was established on the basis of test scores, credit for total postal service, and rankings by two immediate supervisors. Selection boards were set up, and postmasters were limited in their selection of supervisors to those recommended as best qualified by the selection boards, acting on the basis of supervisory eligible registers.

In 1968 the use of promotion supervisory boards was made mandatory at all levels for all offices having more than 25 employees. In cooperation with the Civil Service Commission we have conducted validation studies of our written supervisory examinations and have acted to eliminate any cultural bias. Today the Post Office Department has a written agreement with its employee organizations on eligibility for promotions, the first agency in the Federal Government to do so. Every possible step that could be taken has been taken to eliminate favoritism and discrimination while at the same time giving postmasters a necessary degree of discretion which they must have in order to run their offices.

Qualification standards

Prior to 1961, qualification standards were nonexistent. Currently, there are about 1,000 different job titles authorized in the postal field service. The overwhelming majority of all jobs now have qualification

standards and by the end of this year we hope to have the task completed for all jobs.

Civil service status

We have been in the forefront of those advocating the elimination of nonstatus personnel and the maximum conversion of temporary employees to full civil service status. We have pressed assiduously to reduce temporary employment to the rock-bone minimum and have sought its elimination in first-class offices. We endorsed and urged Executive Order 11187 of 1964 and we testified in support of the bill which established a basis in law for conversion of "temps" to full civil service status on a continuing basis.

Recruitment

We have made major new departures in the area of recruitment including the elimination of restrictive resident requirements, the consolidation of civil service boards, and the activation of positive recruitment programs in minority group areas. Additionally, we have undertaken special hiring programs aimed at the disadvantaged and have utilized new techniques of testing and of scoring to speed up hiring procedures.

I would like to point out that we have also initiated a physically handicapped program in the Department which this year was presented with a special award from the President's Committee as being one of the best in the Government and has resulted in the hiring of 14.000 handicapped employees since the beginning of the program just a few years ago, 207 of whom are blind, plus 1,021 mentally retarded employees. Over 1,300 employees appointed had impaired hearing. Over 158 deaf-mutes are being employed, of whom we appointed just 18 yesterday in Detroit from the April examination.

We have experimented with new programs designed to increase the labor market for the Post Office Department, particularly in the area of part-time career workers and college students who are in need of financial assistance. Despite the difficulties of recruiting personnel in an era of extremely low unemployment and under the handicap of a national pay rate which, in some cities at the starting rate because of the step system, is about 10 percent below that offered by competitive employers; we have recruited literally hundreds of thousands of workers onto the Post Office Department rolls. People who never before have had the opportunity to become a career postal employee are now enjoying that status.

Equal employment opportunity

Since 1961, the Post Office Department has undertaken the most extensive equal employment opportunity program in its history and by far the most aggressive of any Federal agency. We have eliminated segregated postal facilities which existed in great number in 1961.

We have told unions having segregated units to integrate or lose recognition.

We have abolished separate registers, which were used to exclude Negroes.

We have refused to permit postal contract stations to be located in private businesses which discriminated in their public services, whether postal service or any other services they gave the general public.

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We have created postmasters programs for progress in the 311 largest post offices.

We have created equal employment advisory committees and made EEO the direct responsibility of postmasters.

We have prohibited segregation in employee recreation activities. We have revised promotion procedures and examinations and provided special sensitivity training to eliminate bias and discrimination in promotions.

Entrance examinations have been reevaluated with the same objectives in mind. We have spoken out before local legislative bodies on behalf of open housing and cooperated with civil groups to conduct courses to prepare minority personnel to pass entrance examinations.

In every major city throughout the United States the post office today employs more minority group personnel than exists within the population of the city, or within any other public employer in a city or by any large private employer in a city.

That our efforts have been rewarded is indicated by these statistics which show that, as of the end of last year, 21.7 percent of our work force is now composed of minority group employees consisting of over 132,000 Negroes, 14,785 Spanish-Americans, 3,766 Orientals, and 1,057 American Indians.

Moreover, we employ over 122,000 women with an increasing number being found in higher grades.

Not only are minority group people hired in large numbers, they hold many top positions including the postmasterships of the three largest post offices in the United States.

In 1961 there were 49 minority group persons in level 12 positions and higher in the Post Office Department. In 1967 there were 349 minority persons in equivalent level positions.

Skills inventory

In 1965, we undertook to inventory the skills available in the postal service and to design a system whereby persons with skills and learning could be brought to the attention of appointing officials. Data was returned on over 285,000 employees. During the years which the skills bank was first established runs have been requested by almost every bureau of the Department and employees selected for higher level responsibilities in the areas of personnel, accounting, transportation, and inspection.

LABOR RELATIONS

In 1961, although there were unions, there was no union recognition in the Post Office Department. There was no such thing as consultation with the unions prior to the issuance of new policies. There was no such thing as a negotiated contract or a written promotion agreement. There were no regular labor-management meetings at the national level and there were only occasional and sporadic exchanges of information at the discretion of management. Unions never dreamed they could achieve a dues checkoff system. There were no debates over whether an item was negotiable, nonnegotiable, or optionally negotiable, because it was very clear not one single item was negotiable about anything at any level-except perhaps with Congress on issues of pay. What a different story in 1968. Today the Post Office Department has concluded the negotiation of its fourth national contract extending