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IT'S BIG - BIG EVEN FOR THE BIG TOWN

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Even New Yorkers, who seldom raise an eyebrow unless something is at the very least colossal, stupendous, or gigantic take a second look at the Stratocruiser - the plane so big that it will land at only an estimated 50 per cent of the country's airports used by the commercial air lines and at many of them only with weight penalties. Many and varied are the methods, some of them certainly not in the best interests of safety, that are being taken to make the airports fit the plane when the proper procedure would be to build the plane to fit the airport. ALPA has long recommended and fought for 10,000-feet runways; planes like the Stratocruiser demand them; yet what airport has them? The Stratocruiser has made 50 per cent of the airports in the country obsolete. Will the planes keep getting bigger and bigger until there isn't an airport in the country to accommodate them and the percentage reaches zero? It's high time to stabilize. 


Three Grievances Arbitrated on NAL

For the first time since the National Air Lines strike ended on November 24, 1948, all of the National pilots with the exception of a few still held on the ground for medical reasons, were back to work in June, but only as a result of constant prodding of the company by the Association in a never ending battle to keep the back-to-work program in progress.

As a result of one of three grievances placed in arbitration earlier in the month, the cases of those pilots still grounded will be decided shortly under settlement provisions of the arbitrator's decision in which each step has a definite time limit that can not be circumvented. These medical grievances are to be resolved by an examination of the grounded pilots by neutral doctors recommended by the Dean of Medicine at John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore and the cases are to be settled on the basis of these doctors' findings. 

Three Grievances - The grievances which it had become necessary to place into arbitration were Grievance No. 19, which was the result of National Air Lines infamous company doctor disqualifying many returning pilots; Grievance No. 5, known as the training pay case; and Grievance No. 20, which sought to put an end to the company's stalling and procrastinating methods of delaying the return to work program.

These grievances were originally filed on May 10 and processed through all steps of the grievance machinery in the strike-ending agreement and the actual arbitration hearing got under way in Miami, Florida, on June 2 before the arbitrator, Supreme Court Judge Topton of Missouri. The hearings, held at the McAllister Hotel, lasted through June 9.

In addition to providing a method for settling pre-medical grievances, as decided by the decision in Grievance No. 19, the decision in the training pay case also was favorable. This involved the payment of somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,0000 in back pay due the National pilots as a result of DC-6 and DC-4 training prior to the time the strike began on February 3, 1948.

Grievance No. 20 ended in what can be best described as a standoff decision on the part of the arbitrator, primarily because what the Grievance sought to accomplish had already been accomplished by the company expediting the back-to-work program of the returning National pilots.

Representing the pilots at the Miami arbitration hearings were David L. Behncke and Harold F. Bennett of Headquarters, ALPA attorney Henry Weiss, Charles H. Ruby of Council No. 8, Jacksonville, S. S. Lander, D. E. Burch, Gale Southard, Robert C. Peck, R. J. Rohan, W. R. Broocke of Council No. 73, Miami, and many others. The company was represented by Mr. J. M. Rosenthal, Director of Industrial Relations, and company attorney Charles McCarthy.

Still No Surcease - Since the arbitration hearings three additional grievances have been filed. One relates to the returning regulars objecting to wearing uniforms of the strike breakers; another to a violation of the back-to-work Agreement and the Conciliator's recommendations issued by Judge James M. Landis, the conciliator, to which both the company and the Association agree, respecting strike breakers riding the same cockpit with regulars; and the third to the company's violation of the regular pilots Employment Agreement with National relating to the arbitrary moving of returning pilots out of permanent domiciles. 

HANDS ACROSS SEA
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MAY and HANBURY
Women With Wings
Col. Geraldine P. May, left, Director of Women in the U.S. Air Force, greets Air Commandment Felicity H. Hanbury, Director of Britain's Women's Royal Air Force, upon her arrival at Bolling Field. The Director will make a 15-day tour of the USAF bases as a guest of the U.S. Air Force.


Other Crafts and Classes Requests ALPA Assistance
Increased requests of unorganized classes and crafts for ALPA organization assistance and affiliation, plus continued progress among those crafts and classes already in the process of organization, keynotes the current activities of the ALPA Education and Organization Department. 

On June 1, the Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association (ALSSA) signed an Employment Agreement with Capital Airlines covering hostesses and flight service attendants in the employ of that company and giving them the highest domestic flight pay scale and expense allowances of any similar group. 

On June 13, Pioneer Air Lines became the thirteenth air line to be represented by ALSSA with the National Mediation Board certification of the Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association as their duly designated and authorized collective bargaining representative. Negotiations also started in New York on June 29 in relation to the amendments to the Eastern Air Lines flight attendants contract.

Hold First Meeting - The first regional meetings of the ALSSA chairmen were held in New York beginning on June 27. Delegates were present from American Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, TWA, Colonial Airlines and Northeast Airlines, representing flight attendants domiciled in Boston, New York and Newark.

An entire series of similar meetings is scheduled for various sections of the country within the very near future.

PAGE 14           THE AIR LINE PILOT