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IN HONGKONG, A HAVEN OF SAFETY
[[image - photograph]]

The air lines and the air line pilots played a prominent part in the evacuation of the Chinese war zone as communist forces took over in typical enslaving fashion and refugees fled the path of the red invaders.  As they have in every crisis, the air lines stayed on the job until the last moment; until long after all avenues of surface escape ceased to exist and the thud of the conqueror's boots forced them to flee for safety too.  Tenseness and drama were all about the departure of the last plane from Shanghai.  Behind lay the already-surrendered city with red troops at its portals free to enter at will; ahead lay Hongkong far from the strife; ready to depart was the last flight from Shanghai, the last road to safety.  Here this dramatic moment is caught by the camera as the last passenger steps into the last Pan American plane to leave Lunghwa Airport in communist-besieged Shanghai.  Standing on the ramp is the steward, while in the foreground is a Nationalist soldier.  The Hongkong-bound Clipper carried 50 refugees.  Each day in peace and war the air lines of the nation carve themselves a new niche in the history of our times meeting each new emergency and disaster call without hesitation.  Evacuate a war zone? Rush emergency supplies to a flood area?  Fly a mercy mission?  Whatever it is, the air lines' answers and the answers of its pilots have always been, "We're ready and able to do the job."  And do the job they always have.


E. & O. Dept. Takes More Groups Under Its Wing

More and more organizations sponsored by the ALPA Education and Organization Department are becoming active, meaning more and more work in this segment of Headquarters' activity.

The Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association is carrying on negotiations with Pioneer Air Lines; the TWA-ALSSA negotiations have gone into mediation; and the stewardesses of Robinson Airlines have requested a collective bargaining election to name their representative.

The Air Carrier Communication Operators of Chicago and Southern have signed a contract with their company, while the flight attendants of Eastern Airlines have requested the services of a mediator in their negotiations with the carrier.

The Air Carrier Flight Engineers Association, which recently won the NMB-conducted collective bargaining election involving AA's flight engineers, has completed its first series of employment agreement negotiations with the company.

The newest organization of the E and O Department to become active is the Air Carrier Mechanics Association which has made considerable progress in its organizational efforts among the mechanics of several air lines.


BEHIND GREIVANCE CASES——WORK——WORK——WORK

[[image - group photograph]]

In the grievance section of every ALPA employment agreement lies the air line pilots real protection and their all-important job security.  However, even these finest of grievance sections mean little or nothing without effectiveness of utilization and full utilization means much that goes unseen by all but the active participants——the long hours of toil and work and preparation behind every case and every hearing.  Typical of the effort that goes into these cases is the case of Captain Benton Baldwin, UAL——for whom the fight is being carried on more than two years after his accident——as shown here in the preparation stage.  Working on the case (l. to r.) are: Captain R. L. Stone, of Local Council No. 12, UAL-Chicago; C. F. Eck, of the Headquarters Engineering and Air Safety Department; M. H. Schy, of the Legal and Conciliation Department; Captain Baldwin and J. B. Lampe, another of ALPA's three staff attorneys.  The Baldwin case is only one of many.  At the time of the Fourth Executive Board meeting there were 87 grievance cases actively in the grievance settling machinery plus 23 actions before the CAB.  On NAL alone there have been 41 grievances since the strike.



TEN YEARS AGO

It is an old axiom that anything worthwhile bears repeating, and air safety and the vital part it plays in the air line industry rates a prominent place in that category.  In 1949, ALPA still professes the same creed that it held to so passionately in 1939: that air safety is the lifeblood and the selling point of air line transportation.

In an editorial in the August, 1939, issue of the AIR LINE PILOT, signed by President Behncke, the all-too familiar trend of air safety was pointed up by President Behncke with the nail-on-the-head comment:

"Conferences can be held——rules can be made.  But when it is all said and done, it is all too easy, when it comes to the final issue, and the economic shoe pinches just a little, to do the all-too-familiar fence-straddling act, blow hot and cold all at the same time.  In the final analysis, then, it is up to the pilots if we are to have real air safety."

Commenting on the fact that the Independent Air Safety Board had been established, he added: "It is still up to you, the men in the cockpits, to make the decisions that will result in maintaining and carrying forward the splendid safety record of our country's air network to a new high in world air transportation.

During the weeks of August, 1939, the Employment Agreement Department was the nucleous [[nucleus]] of all ALPA activity.  TWA had signed on the dotted line winning for themselves place position in the race for ALPA representation, shortly after American Airlines had become the Association's first carrier.  PCA (now Capital Air Lines) and Braniff Airways came in a close third and fourth, with Panagra and United Air Lines also wanting in the ALPA stable.

The Air Line Pilots Association scored another and unusual type of victory when they won an award after leading the American Federation of Labor parade in the position of honor.  The pilots of several different air lines, along with some other 100,000 federationists, participated in one of New York City's most colorful demonstrations on August 12, 1939, and one of labor's greatest reviews.  The front page of the AIR LINE PILOT was filled with photos of the marchers, and carried a letter from the late F. H. LaGuardia, then Mayor of New York.  The letter announced that ALPA had received an award for their "natty attire."  The cup bore the inscription:

"Presented to the Air Line Pilots Association by the New York State Federation of Labor Convention Committee for Neatness of Attire in the A. F. of L. Labor Parade held on August 12, 1939, in New York City."

THAT IS THE HISTORY OF ALPA IN A NUTSHELL——A PLAUDIT-WINNING AVIATION LEADER IN 1939; STILL A LEADER OF THE SAME CALIBRE IN 1949!

PAGE 12     THE AIR LINE PILOT