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To All Active ALPA Members -5- January 26, 1948 Much more could be said but in the interest of brevity, the following will give you some idea of the amounts of the new rates of compensation that came out of this two-year battle which, if lost, may not have meant the death knell of ALPA, but it would have rocked it back on its heels so badly it would have taken years to recover. The best rates of compensation for domestic copilots and first pilots and international copilots and first pilots achieved under this cycle of negotiations with individual companies are: RATES OF COMPENSATION BASED ON A FULL MONTH'S FLYING: Monthly Yearly Low High Low High Domestic Copilots $265.00 $540.00 $3180.00 $6480.00 Domestic 1st Pilots 748.08 1206.38 8976.96 14476.56 Int'l Copilots 275.00 640.00 3300.00 7680.00 Int'l Copilots If 422.50 710.00 5070.00 8520.00 Based Abroad Int'l 1st Pilots 717.00 1327.50 8604.00 15930.00 Int'l 1st Pilots If 1140.00 1427.50 13680.00 17130.00 Based Abroad In the cycle of negotiations just completed, ALPA ob-tained for the pilots many thousands of dollars in retroactive pay for all the larger equipment back to the day it was first placed into service. The carriers and their ATA Airlines Negotiating Committee even did their best in a last-ditch maneuver to welsh on the retroactive pay part of the deal, which was a promise they had made at the beginning, on or about December 28, 1945, that they would pay retroactively for all the larger and faster equipment from the day it was first flown by the air line pilots. Considerable retro-active pay was obtained on smaller equipment, but the bulk of the retroactivity was on the larger equipment. This cycle of employ-ment agreement negotiations gained for the air line pilots, as near as can be estimated, in the neighborhood of $6,761,000 in increased rates of compensation for one year, and $3,359,000 in retroactive pay. These are more substantial amounts of money. The total of these two figures is more than -- TEN MILLION DOLLARS-- gained for one year. In addition to the amounts of gain in rates of compensation and retroactive pay, we must not forget the marked improve-ments made in our method of compensation. We must not forget the broad strides made in our rules and conditions of employment. Decision 83 in the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, our minimum wage and maximum flying hour federal law hitching post, was greatly enhanced and improved. In the 1946-47 cycle of employment agreement negotiations, we built up on our Decision 83 federal law formula, improved greatly and strengthened the effectiveness and uniformity of our rates of compensation method thereunder. Many new and bene-ficial innovations were added, including gross weight pay -- first worked out successfully and agreed to on Eastern Air Lines on April 19, 1947. Headquarters experienced considerable opposition from its own member conferees on methods of compensation. Many had ideas on pay formulas, all different and many at variance with our federal law formula, Decision 83. All this well-meaning but wrong-way effort caused Headquarters' negotiators plenty of anxious moments and added effort to keep things on the beam. In many ways, method of compensation is as important as amount. Wrong-way methods can result in quick collapse of our entire pay structure and its under-lying federal law.
