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Both they and those who were laid off by the air lines, together more than one-half of the separations, had periods of unemployment averaging several months, one out of 7 still being unemployed on October 1 of this year. 

One out of 3 of the separations got jobs in which the initial pay was lower than their last air line pay; and almost 60 percent of these are still earning less (54 percent of the copilots, 64 present of the first pilots), although, on the average, they have had these jobs for a year. 

II. The High Rate of Pilot Occupational Disability is a Major Problem. 

The concern of pilots about their long-term security is not, by any means, new. We began to think about retirement systems ten years ago and as long ago as 1939, I was instructed by the Association in Convention to formulate a comprehensive pilots' retirement system. Substantial progress had been made when the outbreak of the war compelled us to lay that kind of activity aside. But the Association is again working toward the formulation of a retirement system. 

The problem of the extra hazardous work in which pilots are engaged, and particularly the wearing effects of the occupation have been, naturally, subjects for discussion in connection with out negotiations with the air lines. The problem was brought to the attention of the Emergency Board, created by the President on May 7, 1946, in connection with the dispute between the Association and T.W.A. At that time, there were put into the record of the hearing before the Emergency Board a number of exhibits alleged to indicate that the pilots were not subject to any substantial hazard and that there was no evidence to indicate any high disability rate. 

The Air Line Pilots Association has been concerned with the formulation of a pilots' retirement system because, in our judgement, the existing situation, if allowed to go unchanged, will make it impossible, as the industry matures and as its glamour wears off, to recruit and retain the high type of persons who have been pilots up to now. Unfortunately, we are already beginning to lose some of the ablest of our pilots for this reason. 

In the past, it has been possible, in some measure, to keep able pilots in the service of the air lines by using them on non-flying jobs. We are proud of the fact that the membership of the Association includes a number of able former pilots who now hold important executive positions on air lines. But, in a large measure, that route is almost closed. Our study discloses that slightly less than 1 percent of those separated from the service have taken positions on the same or other air lines after they have ceased to be pilots. Five percent took other flying positions, a fact which is not altogether to the credit of the scheduled air line industry.