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To All ALPA Members     -3-         June 21, 1948
           Doubtlessly, many of our friends are interested in knowing the final outcome of our decision not to cross our own picket lines.  Much could be said about this, but to make it brief, the determination of the air line pilots, other than the ones on strike on National Airlines, to take a definite stand to require the company to cooperate with the federal government to settle the National strike was a marked success.  There was grumbling about the matter and many probing questions asked by Baker's attorneys at the hearing, but when it's all said and done, there can be no quarrel with any action of any employee representing organization that is striving earnestly for the settlement of a strike, and that's all that the ALPA members' decision not to cross their own picket lines amounted to.  Had it not been for this action on the part of an overwhelming number of ALPA directors and councils, the National dispute would still be in the doldrums and there would have been no Presidential Emergency Board appointed.
        This brings us to the present status of the National strike and the fifth National strike assessment.  In the Presidential Executive Order creating the Emergency Board, the following paragraph appeared:
     "As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by the National Airlines, Inc., or its employees in the conditions out of which the said dispute arose."

This is normally interpreted to mean that employees go back to work when the Presidential Order is issued, and everything reverts back to status quo as of the beginning of the strike. In accordance with the Presidential Order, Headquarters arranged to have one of its representatives, W.P. Kilgore, the Chairman of Council No.73, D.E. Burch, and Vice Chairman S.E.Stoia call on G.T.Baker in Miami on May 19 at the offices of the company to arrange for compliance with the above-quoted paragraph of the Presidential Executive Order. Mr. Baker characteristically refused to comply with this part of the Presidential characteristically refused to comply with this part of the Presidential Order and attempted to twist the visit of Messrs. Kilgore, Burch, and Stoia by issuing warped and untrue statement to the press that the National pilots had lost the strike and were coming back on the company's terms on bended knees in an attempt to salvage what was left of their jobs. All this doesn't mean anything, but it is another very vivid and realistic indication of how G.T.Baker operates. Therefore, let us not entertain any illusions. 

The National pilots are standing up remarkably well, considering the terrific strain they have been under and all the hardships they have endured since the strike began on February 3, 1948. It's been a difficult assignment for Headquarters to try to keep the strike assessments coming in and the strike benefits going out on time to the National pilots. It is something that, in the final analysis, depends on collections. When the assessments don't come in, benefits can't be paid out. It is a certainty that if every member of ALPA could have attended the Presidential Emergency Board hearings in Washington, May 25 to June 4, Headquarters would have no further trouble collecting the National pilots' strike assessments. 

National's maneuvering at this hearing before the Presidential Emergency Board was extremely revealing, to say the least. G.T.Baker and his lawyers sat in the forefront at the council table, and lined up immediately in back of them along the wall were the ATA and the Airlines Negotiating Committee lawyers and representatives. They blandly stated they were "observers", but the whispering, counselling, and note passing was terrific. It's the same kind of a deal. G.T.Baker, backed by the ATA, is not only fighting his pilots, but all air line