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To All Active ALPA Members   -3-   January 26, 1948

Had it succeeded, it would have been a great day for the ATA. It would have been disastrously and calamitous for the air line pilots. APLA resisted with every power and resource at its command. This move on the part of the carriers was the direct cause of the TWA strike. Later, the CAB investigated the cause of the TWA flight stoppage and the report of their public counsels, Messrs. James L. Highsaw, Jr. and Gabriel J. Batavia, included the following: 
"Events from June, 1945 to July, 1946 established the fact that there could have been no strike on TWA in October, 1946 had the Committee (ARA's Airlines Negotiating Committee) not entered the picture."
This was the conclusion of the investigation of the Federal Public Counsels of the CAB on the cause of the TWA strike. 
The story continues: TWA repeatedly refused to arbitrate unless ALPA would arbitrate all sections in an industry-wide pilots' employment agreement, proposed by ATA through its Airlines Negotiating Committee. Stop and reflect how that would have ended for all air line pilots. Finally the carriers forced a strike date to be set on TWA, on April 5, 1946. An Emergency Board was appointed by President Truman on May 7, 1946. On this Board were three members, George E. Bushnell, William M. Leisersen, and John A. Lapp, overrated, pompous, and haughty. They knew all the answers. ALPA representatives made a strong case. Nothing was overlooked. We said, too, "the larger, faster, and more productive equipment will cause damaging technological unemployment of air line pilots." The Emergency Board wasn't impressed. The companies' representatives scoffed and laughed. They were all there, not only TWA. UAL and AA were in the forefront, too. TWA laid off 130 pilots before the Emergency Board hearings ended. American then employed nearly 1200 pilots. Now it is something close to 800 and still going down. The Emergency Board made a most pitiful botch of the Emergency Board hearings. Conservatively, 90% of the pilots' testimony went over their heads. Their final decision was a nightmare of confusion and things ended in extreme chaos. When asked to make an interpretation of their lengthy and hopelessly involved decision, the Board members went on vacation. Headquarters felt they were not capable of rendering an interpretation of their book-length ramblings. 
In the interim, it must be remembered that all the agreements with all the other companies were opened on the question of rates of compensation and related working conditions for the larger and faster DC-4,  Constellation, and other types of larger, faster, and more productive equipment. 
The  TWA strike, called on October 21, 1946, ended on November 15, 1946, 26 days later, in an agreement to arbitrate but with TWA only and not with all the air line companies operating in both the foreign and domestic fields of the business. this was a distinct victory for APLA. The arbitration took place in Chicago from January 3 through January 16, 1947. The TWA arbitration award was rendered on January 22, 1947. The award wasn't all that was expected, but it was head and shoulders above the Emergency Board's decision. The main point to remember is the carriers lost completely their battle against ALPA to destroy all the individual agreements the air line pilots had with their companies on the respective air lines, and to replace all these agreements with one meaningless industry-wide agreement. 
The TWA strike resulted in the removal of top management officials of TWA and replacement by new officials. Today, the Company has been reorganized, is prospering, and the relationship between the company and the pilots is of the best. 
From January 22, 1947, the day of the handing down of the TWA arbitration award, to January 1948 -- something less than one