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This includes recommendations that such certificates be suspended or revoked.
> Effecting the emergency suspension of certificates under Section 609 of the Act and presenting the Government's case to the Board or its examiners in actions for the suspension or revocation of certificates.
> Requesting the Board for a formal investigation of safety matters and presenting relevant evidence in such cases.
> Accepting offers in compromise of civil penalties under Section 901 of the Act and transmitting uncompromised civil penalty cases to the U.S. Attorney General for prosecution.

Functions of CAB ...
The Board Is to Exercise the Functions of:
> Preparing and prescribing, both technically and legally, all safety standards, rules, and regulations, including those proposed by the Administrator.
> Interpreting safety standards, rules, and regulations, and applicable statutes, in connection with suspension and revocation safety proceedings, including proceedings where an application for an airman certificate has been denied.
> Receiving all petitions for reconsideration where an application for an airman certificate or the renewal thereof has been denied.
> Issuance, upon the recommendation of the Administrator or upon the Board's own initiative, of orders to show cause directed to holders of safety certificates.
> Hearing and deciding suspension and revocation cases. The Board will also handle appeals to the courts from suspension and revocation orders.
> Receiving and considering all formal complaints with respect to safety matters and instituting all investigations, holding all hearings, and entering all orders with respect to such matters.
> Handling, in cooperation with the Department of Justice, all appeals to the courts from orders relating to safety matters.

Railway Labor Act ...
Pilots are covered by the Railway Labor Act through reference in the Civil Aeronautics Act. Specifically referring to air line pilots, it states:
"Every air carrier shall maintain rates of compensation for all of its pilots and copilots who are engaged in overseas or foreign air transportation or air transportation wholly within a Territory or possession of the United States, the minimum of which shall be not less, upon an annual basis, than the compensation required to be paid under said decisions 83 for comparable service to pilots and copilots engaged in interstate air transportation within the continental United States (not including Alaska) . . . . Nothing herein contained shall be construed as restricting the right of any such pilots or copilots, or other employees, of any such air carrier to obtain by collective bargaining higher rates of compensation or more favorable working conditions or relations. . . . It shall be a condition upon the holding of a certificate by any air carrier that such carrier shall comply with title II of the Railway Labor Act as amended."

Thus, in turn, in 1936, the Railway Labor Act became the collective-bargaining statute of the airline industry. Title II of the Railway Labor Act is, for all practical purposes, merely an extension of title I with minor exceptions, expanding the protection provided Railway employees to air line employees as well. Compliance with its provisions is mandatory upon air carriers for one very strong reason: air carrier certificates of convenience and necessity are dependent upon such compliance.

Employee Representation...
The Railway Labor Act, as applied to air carriers, through title II, provides for:
> A method of making and maintaining agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, and working conditions.
> The right of employees to select representatives of their own choosing, and be represented without "interference, influence, or coercion."
> Procedures for settlement of  disputes concerning rates of pay, rules and working conditions as well as those arising out of grievances or out of interpretation and applications of agreements.
Within this framework of objectives and purposes of the Railway Labor Act are methods of establishing recognition of employee-representing organizations such as ALPA and step-by-step employment agreement making procedures. The latter includes: (1) direct negotiations; (2) mediation; (3) arbitration; and (4) upon progressive failure of these, the reservations of the employees' right to use economic strength and the President's power to appoint a fact-finding Board when a national emergency exists or is threatened.

National Mediation Board ...
The National Mediation Board has jurisdiction over air carriers coming under the Railway Labor Act and its services may be invoked when (1) a dispute concerning changes in rates of pay, rules, or working conditions occurs and is not adjusted by the parties in conference, or, (2) there is any other dispute not referable to an adjustment Board, not adjusted in conference, or in which a conference is refused. The National Mediation Board, itself, may proffer its services in case any labor emergency is found by it to exist at any time.
The Railway Labor Act originally covered only employees of railroads. ALPA was influential in having the Act amended in 1936 to include airlines by the addition of title II. ALPA's first employment agreement was written three years later with American Airlines in 1939. Agreements with other carriers followed. Pan-American being the last of the "Big 5" in 1945 and local service carriers in more recent years.
ALPA has practiced rigid compliance with the word, spirit, and intent of the Railway Labor Act and continues to regard it as the best labor legislation yet conceived for a transportation industry.

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