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You might then be in the position of cutting off your nose to spite your face. What I am getting at is that you are in Syracuse because the Company has consistently and persistently been advertising Captain vacancies for bid every time that there has been a "reduction in force". This is contrary to our contract. At the risk of being trite, let me quote from my letter of December 12, 1949 to you in Syracuse:

"I do wish that you would recognize the fact that the council is face with a basic problem that not only effects you, but every other pilot in the company. From the way in which the pilots at Syracuse have been delt with and the way some pilots based at New York (yourself included) have been delt with, it appears that the Syracuse pilots are gradually and definitely being transposed to New York, and that the New York pilots are being transposed to Syracuse as replacements. This whole business is being done outside of our present contract. Since this is a basic problem, what are the pilots going to do about it?"

By raising this question last December I was inviting both you and the council to challenge me. I think now that we all have a little broader realization of our particular problem we are now in a better position to do something about it. What?

In the first place for you to file a personal grievance along the lines you are suggesting in your correspondence relating to your position in Syracuse, would perhaps gain you a personal victory and perhaps endanger your position with the company, (assuming that you have a grievance). In the second place, since the problem is basically one of a contract violation, then obviously group action is called for.

A review of the bulletin put out by the Company dated October 19, 1949, a copy of which is attached, indicates that five men at New York would be displaced. The company, by some devious logic, then said that the runs of the tree men at Syracuse (Captains Hill, Wright and Taylor) were then opened for bid. To one of these vacancies you became a successful bidder. Now, for some unknown reason, the Company saw fit to place the runs of these three bottom men at Syracuse up for bid, but did not place open for bid the runs of the other two men at New York. Why?

Now let's get down to some practical conclusions of our meeting of January 31, 1945 at your home.

1. To fine a grievance for any reason designed to get you back to New York at this late date would not achieve the purpose you desire. It takes many months to fully pursue a grievance through the many steps necessary before the "question" can be resolved. Long before that time you will have had an opportunity to bid back to the New York base.