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To All Members  -3-  October 15, 1942

Please study this law carefully and make sure you understand it, and then if some ill-advised operating head gives you a chopped-up interpretation, inadvertently or on purpose, the thing to do is produce a copy of the law and show him what it actually says.

While on the subject of interpreting the Federal law relating to the salaries, rules, and working conditions of air line pilots, it might be well to again review the sections of the law that the Air Line Pilots Association managed to include in the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 after a bitter struggle of more than two years.

We have many new members quite a few of whom are almost totally unacquainted with the accomplishments of ALPA.  Without going into detail, all of the new members can rest assured that had it not been for the efforts of the Association, their salaries would today be only a fraction of what they are and a pretty small fraction at that; and their flying hours would not be what is reasonable and fair and in line with safety, but would be limited only by human endurance and would range from 140 to 160 hours monthly.

We have been hearing recently about a lot of unsavory attempts on the part of certain carriers to lower wage scales of the new copilots who are entering the profession.  The argument they use is, the new copilots are not as experienced as copilots formerly employed and they don't have instrument ratings.  Also, the companies complain of having to give them more training but they say nothing about the Government's paying for the lion's share of this training on a cost plus basis.

The you-must-be-a-licensed-air-line-pilot "swan song" to be paid in accordance with the contract is also something that they picked from thin air.  There is nothing in any law nor in any of our contracts that says anything about the necessity of being licensed to receive proper pay under the contracts.  In the light of labor practice generally in this country, this is another ridiculous approach and only an organization such as the Air Transport Association would sponsor something of this character.  For example, if it were true that people should receive less money, why don't machinists and all of the other skilled branches of America's workers follow this practice?  Certainly, we have thousands upon thousands of machinists working on lathes today who haven't the experience that the machinist of peacetime had, but do they get any less money per hour?  The answer is most decidedly "NO."  If this practice were allowed to flourish or even get under way, labor would soon sacrifice every gain it has fought for through the years -- and for what??  To increase the war profits of the companies!!  This same thought applies to every branch of labor, profession, or craft.  Therefore, is it reasonable to single out the air line pilots and reduce their salaries just because they don't have quite as much experience as they would normally?  They are still doing the work, aren't they?  It seems the main idea is to get the chisel in some place no matter what method is used.

All new copilots hired, no matter what licenses they have, or what number of flying hours they have to their credit, must, if they actually fly as copilots on the line, be paid