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AFFILATED WITH THE A.F. of L.           "SCHEDULE WITH SAFETY"

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AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION 
INTERNATIONAL 
3145 WEST SIXTY-THIRD STREET
CHICAGO 29

TELEPHONE 
GROVEHILL 2200

February 5, 1948

Mr. Clayton Stiles
28 Squirrel Hill Rd.
Roslyn Hts., L.I., N.Y.

Mr. A. F. Foster
703 Terrace Blvd.
New Hyde Park, N.Y.

Mr. M. A. Gitt
148-25 Bayside Ave.
Flushing, L.I., N.Y.

Mr. Murray W. Latimer
1625 "K" Street, NW
Washington 6, D.C.

Gentlemen:

The indication at this Headquarters is, despite the fact that the pension bill appears to have the approval of the Board of Directors, there is some scattered opposition in the field among our own members.  Most of this opposition is lack of accurate knowledge of the subject.  I believe also that our friend, the infallible ATA, has been on the job.

Recently, when Mr. Patterson was hard-pressed during the final days of the negotiating of the UAL agreement, he is reported, on good authority, to have said, "If UAL's back actually goes to the wall, the first thing that will be done away with is the company's pension plan."  This explains a lot of things.

Here is my recommendation and I believe the sooner we accomplish it, the better it will be:  I believe Mr. Latimer should author a booklet, not too lengthy, written in the language of the laymen or in everyday language of the street on what our new pension law means.  In the same booklet should be an analysis of what the typical company pension plan amounts to.  These booklets, I believe, should be authored and circulated to every member before we enter the fight in earnest in Washington to secure a pension law.  As soon as the battle starts, unless we have our own people well educated and sold on ALPA's pension law, the opposition will move our dissenters into the picture which will be deadly effective against our efforts to get something done.

I believe the Pension Committee should get together on this at the earliest possible time and let Headquarters have the first draft of the material for the booklet describing ALPA's new pension bill.  An early response will be appreciated.

Sincerely yours,
AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION
/s/ David L. Behncke
David L. Behncke, President

dlb/mh