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AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION
International
June 21, 1948

[[underline]] AN INTER-ASSOCIATION LETTER [[\underline]]
[[underline]] TO ALL ALPHA MEMBERS [[\underline]]
(ABOUT THE NATIONAL STRIKE)

Dear Member:

     Ever since we returned from Washington, D.C., on June 5, where we had been busy for several weeks presenting the National Airline strike matter before the Presidential Emergency Board, I have been sparring with an extremely heavy schedule at Headquarters trying to find time to write to the membership and let them know what transpired at these hearings and what the current situation amounts to relating to this strike.

     The hearings commenced promptly as scheduled at 10:00 AM on May 25 before the Presidential Emergency Board. The Board was made up of Colonel Grady Lewis, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Professor Walter V. Schaefer, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.; and Judge Curtis W. Roll of Kokomo, Indiana. Colonel Lewis acted as chairman. National was represented by Attorneys W. I. Denning and A.L. McCarthy, and G. T. Baker and a host of advisors from the ATA and its Airlines Negotiating Committee. The Association was represented by Attorneys Henry Kaiser and Daniel D. Carmell, and myself. The National pilots acting in an advisory capacity were Charles Ruby, NAL Pilots' Master Chairman and Chairman of Council No. 8, Jacksonville; David Burch, Chairman of Council No. 73, Miami; Palmer Holmes, Vice Chairman of Council No. 8, Jacksonville; S. E. Stoia, Vice Chairman of Council No. 73, Miami; M. G. O'Neal, and R. Z. Peck. Many pilots from other air lines visited the hearings and appeared to be impressed.

     The hearings started on May 25 and ended on June 4. The Association put in its direct case first, which was in the form of 112 letters and documents. We used no witnesses for the reason that the documentary evidence was so complete that witnesses were not required. Our direct case consumed four days. The company then put in its direct case. It also consumed four days. The company used one witness and 62 letters and documents, a number being identical to ours. 

     The lone witness used by the company was Mr. Oscar Bakke of the CAB's Safety Bureau, who, at one point earlier in the controversy, was appointed as a neutral in the Maston O'Neal grievance case and resigned when he was objected to by the Air Line Pilots Association on the grounds that he (Bakke) couldn't possibly act in a neutral capacity because of being employed by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the federal agency which licenses the pilots, prosecutes them for alleged CAR violations, and when an accident occurs, issues "pilot error" reports. What the company was trying to prove by putting Bakke on the stand is still not clear, but he (Bakke) established by his testimony that what the pilots' Association had contended was true about his not being qualified to act as a neutral in any grievance case involving the release or discipline of an air line pilot. 

      On June 3, both the company and the National pilots concluded their direct case and on the following day, June 4, the company and the Association were scheduled to make their final arguments. The Presidential Board had allotted two hours to each side for that purpose.