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To ALL ALPA Members - 2                            September 27, 1984
"ONLY REGULAR SUNDAY CROWD AT IDLEWLLD. ABOUT 125 PEOPLE. WELL COVERED WITH PAMPHLETS MATCHES. 50 PILLOTS PICKETING IN FRONT OF TERMINAL. A VERY POOR CEREMONY FOR NATIONAL. DETAILS IN MAIL TONIGHT."
[blank] While these meager festivities were taking place on the ground at Idlewild, the National pilots' skywriting picket, Mac Gilmour, was busy smoke writing high above about National's strikebreaking operations. The newspapers picked this up with a great flare of publicity that made many of the larger daily newspapers throughout the country. It was a great day for the national pilots.
[blank] The National strike-prosecuting efforts have been stepped up in every detail. On September 17, President William Green of the A. F. of L. met with President Truman and discussed the National strike, pointing out that this company is simultaneously receiving millions from the government, and at the same time defying federal laws under which it received this money, and under which it operates. According to reports, the general tenor of President Green's arguments was that the government is very exacting and sharp when dealing with labor-representing organizations that are allegedly in violation of federal law, Presidential Executive Orders, and other deferral machinery dealing with such matters, and correlatively, in the National Airlines strike, it amounts to a situation where the shoe is on the other foot. Board which is really a fact-finding agency of practically everything in the book, as follows:
"Failure to afford an impartial determination of the propriety of a pilot's discharge caused the strike AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE STRIKE RESTS WITH THE CARRIER.
"The story revealer by the evidence is one of dis-regard for statutory and contractual obligations on the part of the Carrier. IT INDICATES AND IMMATURITY AND LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY WHICH IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH THE DUTIES IMPOSED BY CONGRESS UPON CARRIERS IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE."
And, Baker is still permitted to operate under a federally issued certificate of convenience and necessity.
The press reported on the Truman-Green meeting as follows:
"William Green, President of the A. F. of L., asked President Truman today to assign a representative to find out why the national Airlines has refused to accept the findings of an Emergency Board and to settle the dispute between the company and the Air Line Pilots Association."
[blank] What the effect of this meeting will be cannot immediately be determined, but it's a foregone conclusion that a company that is as definitely in the wrong as National Airlines, cannot continue to carry on and the end is approaching when National must either comply with their employment agreement and the federal laws under which they operate or cease operations.
[blank] As matters now stand, the company has defied the recommendation of the Presidential Emergency Board, the federal laws under which it operates, and its pilots' employment agreement, and is facing a revocation action before the CAB which is rapidly reaching a conclusion. Also, there are three separate civil law suits against Baker. First, there is a suit to collect the back pay incorrectly computed, due the National pilots who are on strike. Secondly, there is a $1,000,000 damage suit against Baker for causing the strike. Thirdly, there is