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Eight
THE AIR LINE PILOT
June,  1947

ALPA Pension Committee Reports on Progress

[[image]] Clayton Stiles, of Local Council No. 12, UAL-Chicago, and chairman of the ALPA Pension Committee, gives the first Executive Board a report on the committee's progress since the Ninth Convention and an outline of its future plans. Others in the photo (l. to r.) are M. A. Gitt, of Local Council No. 28, Colonial; A. F. Foster, of Local Council No. 2, TWA-New York; and Murray Latimer, consultant and well-known authority on retirement legislation. The committee's report was secretive and cannot be revealed, but was received with unanimous enthusiasm by all Board members who complimented the committee on the progress made since the Ninth Convention. 

Crashes Probed
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operations; and H. N. Eskeldson and L. P. Morrison, of the Airlines Negotiating Conference. 
Negotiations with the Northeast Airlines got under way at the company offices at the Commonwealth Airport, Boston, Mass., on June 11 and 12 in the first of a series of conferences on the NAL pilots' employment agreements.  Although both the company and the pilots were in agreement on some points, a second conference was set up for June 26. 
Pilot conferees were H. C. Holman, B. S. Dixwell, A. V. R. Marsh, and R. O. Loranger, and Charles Liebman, all of Local Council No. 9, NAL; and J. C. Christie, of the Employment Agreement Department. The company was represented by M. H. Anderson, vice-president; M. H. Wheeler, chief pilot; and J. M. Rosenthal, of the Airlines Negotiating Conference. 

Two series of Conferences on Colonial Air Lines, with a third one scheduled for the immediate future, were held this month leaving the possibility of an early conclusion of contract negotiations on that airline as an imminent possibility. Conferences with Colonial were held on May 19 and 20, at La Guardia Field, N. Y., followed by a second meeting on June 6 at which time a final conference was set up for June 19.

Some progress was made on the rules section and proposed sections relating to pay, ALPA's conferees reported, and it is hoped that an amendment to the Colonial pilot's agreement will be completed at the June 19 meeting.

Pilot conferees and Headquarters representative at the Colonial meetings were R. B. Silver, M. A. Gitt, B. S. Macklin, and J. B. Faes, all of Local Council No. 28, Colonial; and K. J. Ulrich, or the Employment Agreement Department. The company was represented by B. T. Dykes, vice-president of operations; C. W. Rach, director of flight operations; and F. D. Smith, chief pilot. Previous conferences had been held on Colonial on March 26 and 27, and April 4 and 23, 1947, with their Bermuda operations agreement signed on the latter date leaving only the domestic agreement open.

The Employment Agreement Department schedule for the last part of June and the early part of July is as follows:

United Air Lines, June 16 and 17; Colonial Air Lines, June 19, Delta Air Lines, June 19, 20, and 21; Pan American Airways, June 23; Western Air Lines, June 24, 25, 26, National Airlines, also June 24, 25, and 26; Empire Airlines, June 30, and July 1 and 2; Continental, July 1, 2, and 3; Pioneer, July 8, 9, and 10; and Mid-Continent Airlines, July 8, 9, and 10.

The July issue of the AIR LINE PILOT will include an up-to-the-minute summary of ALPA's entire employment agreement making program which is moving ahead by leaps and bounds.

While the Executive Board meeting and the Employment Agreement Department high-lighted the May-June activities of ALPA, there was no slackening of activities in other Headquarters departments.

On May 29, United's unfortunate La Guardia Field crash occurred, resulting in the death of 41 persons. This immediately occupied the full time of the Association's Engineering and Air Safety department. Later, on May 30, and hardly before the reverberation of the UAL La Guardia crash had died down, a still more terrible crash occurred on Eastern Air Lines with all 53 persons on board being killed. This necessitated more investigation and more time from ALPA's already overloaded staff to cover this crash. All this notwithstanding, both crashes were thoroughly investigated and nothing was slighted by ALPA's safety investigators, who also attended the CAB hearings of the TWA Constellation crash at Cape May, N. J. 

Participating in the TWA Constellation investigation, which consumed approximately 45 hours of grappling, 25 diving trials for wreckage and 9 1/2 hours diving log, were E. A. Davis and J. W. Simmons, both of Local Council No. 24, TWA-International, and ALPA's Engineer Theodore G. Linnert. 

The search for the wreckage was considerably prolonged due to high winds and bad weather, in addition to the fact that due to sandy shoals at the location of the wreckage, the water was not clear for the bulk of the operations. It is also believed that the tide movements were responsible for carrying parts over a wide area and eventually covering them with sand. The CAB hearing on this accident was held on May 27 and 28, 1947, at Wilmington, Del.

A chief pilot's meeting held at the Seneca Hotel, Chicago, Ill., on May 27 and 28 was attended by K. D. Wright, of Local Council No. 43, Delta-Chicago, who is a member of the ALPA Engineering and Airworthiness Advisory Committee, and Carl F. Eck, newly assigned engineer to the Engineering and Air Safety Department, along with members of the CAA, CAB and the flight superintendents from various air lines.

Expansion of worldwide air lines are resulting in organization of overseas councils to be added to ALPA's rapidly growing list of local councils, the Council Coordination and Administration Department reported this month. Two new councils are presently being organized, both on TWA with one being at Cairo and one at Rome to handle the increasing number of ALPA members being domiciled in those areas. One domestic council, however, local Council No. 63, AA-St. Joseph, which represented the AA members on recently-abandoned CACD, has been dropped.

Virtually the entire time of the Grievance and Conciliation Department has been devoted to participation in investigation of the United Air Lines crash at LaGuardia Field on May 29, the first two weeks of June being devoted entirely to attendance at the CAB investigation. J. R. Rice and R. E. Nelson, of the Grievance and Conciliation Department, attended these hearings along with T. G. Linnert and C. F. Eck, of the ALPA's  Engineering Department. 

There has been nothing snail-like about ALPA's activities during the latter part of May and the early part of June. On the contrary, it has been a jet-plane MPH schedule of work and accomplishment.

Candid Captions
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point if I may have the floor," said Don George, of Braniff. "I think the resolution should be amended as follows in order to clarify the point." While the first Executive Board meeting was fast-moving and hard-hitting, there were the usual amendments, amendments to the amendments, and so on ad infinitum. But it was all according to "Hoyle" - pardon us, we've got the conference room and the back room mixed up, we mean Roberts Revised Rules of Order.

FOR A HARD TASK WELL DONE: THANKS

For a job well done, members of the Eastern Air Lines local councils throughout the country this month said, "Thank you, Dave" in letters and telegrams lauding President Behncke for the splendid work accomplished in completing contract negotiations with Eastern Air Lines.

Telegraphed Local Council No. 18, EAL-Miami: "Meeting of Council No. 18, Eastern-Miami, voted to send telegram of appreciation and thanks to David L. Behncke for his long and successful efforts in completing contract negotiations with Eastern Air Lines."

"The following is an excerpt from the minutes of our recent ALPA meeting in Atlanta," wrote Local No. 7, EAL-Atlanta. "That this council go on record as approving the manner in which President Behncke conducted our pay negotiations and express appreciation for his work in accomplishing this end."

In a letter to Headquarters, Local Council No. 72, EAL-Boston, stated:

"One thing has made everyone very happy and that was the fact that you had been able to get the contract settled at acceptable terms and we still had good relations between the pilots and the company. The whole handling of the negotiation was on such an agreeable basis that it might have set some sort of a record for employer-employee relations.

"When we worked to keep you as president at the Ninth Annual Convention, we were sure we had the right man; now we are double sure."

The EAL contract was signed on April 18 after a series of four short conferences that required only 14 days of negotiations to reach and sign a completed agreement despite the extensive problems involved.

The EAL employment agreement is regarded in the field of employment agreement writing as an outstanding document which, it is predicted, will serve as a model for air line industry employment agreement writing.

ALPA Head Said
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from the battlefield, his deeds are all too often and all too soon forgotten. Let us here at this first Executive Board meeting not forget what the TWA pilots did for all of us. While doing this and achieving these great unrealized and unappreciated victories, they were led by our friend and associate, the quiet appearing, unassuming former master chairman of all the TWA pilots. Captain Bill Judd who is with me here on this rostrum today, directly to my left." Bill spoke briefly and with deep feeling to the members present at ALPA's first Executive Board meeting and when he finished there was written on the record of ALPA's first Executive Board meeting, APPLAUSE.

'I Am Proud ...'
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significance of this moment. I am proud to be a participant, and I know all of you are equally proud to be participants." In photo 2, W. P. Kilgore, ALPA's acting executive vice-president, reads the Convention resolution under which the Executive Board was set up. Following admonishment by President Behncke that "the Executive Board faces definite responsibilities that it cannot dodge nor shirk," the 35 first pilot and copilot members of the Board attacked the 28-point agenda with vigor and gained an early momentum that wound up the meeting in a whirlwind of constructive and progressive action. Reading of the Convention resolution was followed by Mr. Behncke's opening speech on the state of the Association.

[[image]]

AN ALPA DISTINCTION

To the Air Line Pilots Association went the distinction of being the only labor organization to have a representative as an official member of the U. S. Delegation at the assembly meeting of the International Civil Air Organization (ICAO) held in Montreal, Canada. ALPA's representative, W. P. Kilgore (in right foreground) was assigned to the legal commission which, among other things, had under consideration an important document concerning the legal status of an aircraft commander in international flight. ALPA's status in the delegation as an official adviser gave it a voice in proceedings which those in an observer's status did not have. ALPA favors reciprocal operating arrangements which would be inaugurated under the ICAO program, but is opposed to those so-called phases of the standardization program which would adversely affect American air line pilots' rules and working conditions by adjusting them to the standards of other countries. In the above photo the U. S. delegates are shown at a morning's conference before the day's round of commission and plenary assembly meetings. Seated at the head table (l. to r.) are: L. Welch Pogue; Harllee Branch; James M. Landis; Garrison Norton, head of the delegation and assistant Secretary of State; W. A. M. Burden, alternate delegation chairman and assistant Secretary of Commerce; Major General L. S. Kuter; and Lt. Comdr. P. A. Smith.