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Four THE AIRLINE PILOT November, 1948 --- The Tenth Convention Main Springs [[10 numbered images diagonally bisect page]] They Captain The Teams |Conventions of the magnitude of ALPA's Tenth Convention take co-operation, teamwork, and effort integrated to the greatest possible degree. Without the committees and subcommittees, where the real spadework, arduous and gruelling, is done, hardly a dent could be made in the terrific agenda that faces the Convention. ALPA conventions are really a series of teams--the committees--working together in harmony. Like all good teams, there must be a captain and this is the role of the committee chairmen --the real mainsprings of the convention--specially and carefully chosen for their background, temperament, qualifications, and special talents and aptitudes. Here, pictured on this page, are the Tenth Convention Committee chairmen in action on the rostrum: (1) Floyd Addison (Delta), chairman, Committee on Employment and Agreements, Salaries, Hours and Employment Conditions; (2) E. J. Martin (AOA), chairman, Committee on Finance, Dues and Pension; (3) Clayton Stiles (UAL), chairman, Committee on Engineering and Air Safety; (4) C. H. Ruby (NAL), chairman, Committee on Nominations and Resolutions; (5) H. C. Ross (Capital), chairman, Committee on CAR and Legislation; (6) J. H. Burns (AA), chairman, Committee on Airway Aids and Air Safety; (7) A. F. Foster (TWA), chairman, Committee on By-Laws and Organizations; (8) S. E. Pangburn (AA), chairman, Committee on Grievance and Membership; (9) A. J. O'Donnell (PAA), chairman, Committee on International Affairs; (10) W. T. Babbitt (EAL), chairman, Committee on Ways and Means and Miscellaneous. | --- |A VETERAN [[image]] Copilots have always played a vital part and acquitted themselves well in ALPA's scheme of things. Here F. S. Blaney, TWA copilot veteran of many ALPA Conventions and Executive Boards, takes the floor during the Tenth Convention during the debate, typical of the part played by all copilot delegates to ALPA's largest biennial meeting.| --- Report on State of Association Opens 10th Convention --- |(Mr. Behncke, acting as chairman of the Convention in conformance with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association, gave a complete report at the Conventions beginning on the state of the Association, and its activities, achievements, problems, plans, and outlook.) In five hours and 20 minutes of the Tenth Convention, during which the history, accomplishments and plans of ALPA unfolded in an inspirational stream in the challenging and pace-setting opening speech of the Chairman, the memories of old-timers were jostled in recollection of the many memorable battles that brought ALPA to its present stature, while for many of the first-time delegates, ALPA took a new depth of meaning far greater than it had before. While essentially a factual roundup of the happenings since the Ninth Convention and a resume of the problems confronting the Association, the Chairmans's keynoting speech, which he characterized as "an off-the-cuff report," was liberally interspersed with bits of ALPA history, predictions, and sound logical advise to the delegates. The Chairman spoke extemporaneously and straight from the shoulder, making no pretense of hiding the work confronting the Convention or at minimizing the delicate problems to which it would be necessary to ferret out solutions. "Many of our problems," he said, "are knotty ones. They can be likened to the mythical Gordian knot that defied untying. I swear, I don't know how we're going to cut them, but they have to be cut." By means of charts, graphs and departmental displays with which he supplemented his speech, the Chairman reported fully on the state of the Association, including its progress and accomplishments, as well as the problems still confronting it. Complete Departmentalization Refinements have been added to the departmentalization of ALPA, he pointed out to the delegates, and Headquarters has now reached the size where it employs a total of 59 persons as compared to 45 at the time of the Ninth Convention. Of this number, 20 are executive personnel and department heads, 21 stenographic, and 18 clerical employees. The Chairman said: “ALPA is now completely departmentalized, namely, Employment Agreement Department; Publicity and Public Relations Department; Engineering and Air Safety Department; Grievance and Conciliation Department; Council Co-ordination and Administration Department; Education and Organization Department; Membership Department; Washington Representation Department; Statistical and Research Department; Mimeograph Department; President's Department; Membership Records Department; Bookkeeping and Accounting Department; the Aeromedical Department; and the Credit Union Department.” He added: “All departments are now staffed and functioning. The day has long passed when ALPA could be referred to as a one-man organization.” Employment Agreement Record The Employment Agreement Department, the Chairman reported, has employment agreements with 25 air lines and is the collective bargaining agent for a total of 29 air lines. ALPA signed its first employment agreement on April 15, 1939, with American Airlines. Since that time, ALPA has negotiated a total of 190 employment agreements, amendments, supplements, and letters of understanding, 51 of these since the Ninth Convention. “They are the finest employment agreements in the field of collective bargaining: moreover, they have the best and most effective grievance-settling provisions,” the Chairman asserted and cited comparisons between the pilots of the United States and those of other countries to illustrate the effectiveness of ALPA employment agreement-making activities. The pilots of the United States, the comparison showed, enjoyed simultaneously flight hours below that of pilots of other countries and the highest rates of compensation, well above those paid in other countries, for both first pilots and copilots, while ALPA alone has grievance - settling machinery second to none embodied in its agreements. To negotiate these agreements, ALPA’s employment agreement representatives have traveled 140 times around the world. (One display showed that since the inception of ALPA, the Chairman himself had, in the aggregate, spent more than four years at conference tables negotiating employment agreements.) Yet despite all this, the Chairman said, the cost of ALPA’s negotiations have remained at an unbelievable low point with costs representing only one per cent of what the increase in rates of compensation amounted to. ALPA has spent $117,280.78 since the Ninth Convention in conducting its employment agreement activities. Grievance Department One of the most important departments of ALPA, the chairman told the delegates, is the Grievance and Conciliation Department which “means job security” because for every job agreement on rates of compensation, there is a separate agreement setting up adjustment boards. Since the Ninth Convention in 1947, the Grievance and Conciliation Department has handled a total of 470 cases compiling a record of 86.4 per cent of its cases being won and only 15.4 per cent lost. Of these cases, 31 involved license revocations, 259 pertained to company grievances, 170 regarded incidents which were adjusted without a formal hearing, and 10 were Civil Aeronautics Board dockets. “The largest and most notable grievance cases participated in by ALPA,: the Chairman recalled, “were the so-called AA-Ardmore screening cases—-one of the most infamous moves ever instituted against the air line pilots and one designed to abruptly and unfairly terminate the employment of many air line pilots. This employment terminating program was termed first as Captains’ Elimination Board, next as C-2 Screening Program, and finally as Pilot Rechecking Program. The Ardmore cases, he elaborated, were really seven grievance cases in one and only through ALPA intervention were they blocked. Among other typical instances in which ALPA stood as the sole protection of the air line pilots were the so-called psychological tests, such as the TWA stanine test that in a matter of a few weeks had already eliminated 185 pilots before ALPA stepped into the breach. “Some then,” the Chairman related, “ALPA has been successful in bringing common sense into the program.” Engineering Department In the field of air safety and engineering, the Chairman said that the ALPA Engineering and Air Safety Department was fulfilling all of the purposes for which it was designed. He defined the overall aim of this department as being "the watchdog of air safety" through keeping a close eye on trends and equipment to eliminate accident potential." He cautioned that air safety was a prime pilot responsibility with the statement: "The companies have not yet learned that safety is the key to profit and loss. It is up to the air line pilots to show the way. The dollar-first-and-air-safety-second advocates will never achieve real air safety. As some of the accomplishments of this department since the Ninth Convention, the Chairman listed: participation on President Truman's Special Board of Inquiry on Air Safety; preparation of design recommendations for the DC-9, which represented the first time in history that the air line pilots had been consulted in advance on transport plane design; submission of 107 safety recommendations to proper authorities and agencies; nine field trips to investigate new developments; nine special meetings of air safety committees; and participation in 78 accident hearings and investigations. "There hasn't been a single accident investigation since the Ninth Convention 18 months ago, at which the Air Line Pilots Association has not been represented," the Chairman emphasized. Council Department The Chairman's report on the Council Co-ordination and Administration Department vividly | --- | The "Eyes" Have It [[image]] All the delegates to the Tenth Convention said to see the air line pilots in action was an "eye opener," but none of them looked at it quite so literally as Delegate S. E. Pangburn from the AA's Bostonian council. The candid camera fiend caught him registering amazement at the Robert's Rules of Order being exercised in their fourth dimension. . . . "I move the resolution (seconded); I move to amend (seconded); I move to amend the amendment (seconded); I move to table; no, I mean to reconsider." Whereupon Delegate Pangburn arose to a point of order, stating: "I'll be damned if I don't get my two cents in, too-I move to adjourn. Trump that if you can, my dear brother colleagues." To his complete amazement, the "eyes" had it, and he took his seat, and the above transformation at once became apparent. In the background, Delegate H. V. Woodall, AA, registered a well-I'll-be-damned look of amazement and whispered hoarsely, "Here's where I came in," and tiptoed quietly out of the picture. | --- | reflected the actual physical growth of the Association, which has expanded from 31 councils in 1932 to 85 councils in 1948. Of the 29 air lines presently represented by ALPA, nine have entered the Association since the Ninth Convention. The new air lines are: Pacific Northern Airlines, Alaska Airlines, West Coast Airlines, Trans Texas Airlines, Florida Airways, Carib- | --- | (Continued on Page 5, Col. 1) Five THE AIRLINE PILOT November, 1948 --- Most Convention Questions Come From Councils --- Some Directly From Floor [[image 1]] It's not uncommon for organizations holding conventions to have strict rules about how and when questions can be proposed for consideration and determination. Certain of such rules provide that no question can be acted upon unless submitted to the secretary of the organization 30 days prior to the Convention and given a place on the agenda. No such throttling barriers exist in ALPA's Convention procedure. In any floor session, any delegate can propose for consideration and determination any question that he may desire. Pictured here are tow delegates--Captain K. A. Woolsey, of Los Angeles TWA Council (right), and Copilot V. M. Williams, of Chicago UAL Council--presenting questions directly from the floor for convention consideration. [[image 2]] --- [[Arrow pointing at image 1]] "Mister Chairman" [[Arrow pointing at image 2]] [[Underneath "Mister Chairman" left]] "It Seems to Me ... that until we establish within our organization a means to settle knotty seniority problems that defy solution are continuously getting into our hair, the repercussions of which are a constant threat to our unity, something is missing in the governing structure of ALPA. Mr. Chairman, I propose a new idea--an Intra-Association Seniority Adjustment Board to which can be referred Intra-Association seniority questions for final disposition not otherwise determined by the machinery of ALPA." [[Underneath "Mister Chairman" right]] "May I have 5 Mins.... to present a pension plan idea? Mr. Chairman, I recognize that we have a regular pension plan that we've done a great deal of work on since the Ninth Convention and which is before this Convention for further study and development. Without detracting from this effort in any way, I would like to place a pension plan before this Convention as an alternate should it at some future time appear desirable. It is more along the lines of recognizing the national defense value of the air line pilots and includes a number of other new features." --- President's Report a Challenging Convention Pace-Setter --- (continued from page 4, Col. 5) bean-Atlantic Airlines, Challenger Airlines, Monarch Air Lines, and Empire Air Lines. The Council Department has also had notable success in the placement of unemployed ALPA members. All pilots listed on ALPA's unemployed roster, with the exception of six, have been placed in flying jobs through the efforts of this department. the Chairman said. Pleading for strong and active councils with good leadership, the Chairman asserted that "the councils are the backbone structure of ALPA and without strong councils, there cannot be a strong ALPA." He urged that the pilots choose their representatives carefully. Publicity Department The Publicity and Public Relations Department has been handling a program far larger than the public relations program of many other organizations with publicity facilities that outstrip ALPA's. Mr. Behncke declared, and handling it in an effective and commendable manner with topnotch results. Since the Ninth Convention, 21 issues of the AIR LINE PILOT have been published and a total of 80 news releases have been written, produced, and distributed by the ALPA News Bureau. Of these 80 press releases, 45 pertained to two major strikes--11 to the AOA strike and 34 to the NAL strike--and the remainder to miscellaneous ALPA activities with the emphasis on air safety. These news releases represent 205 pages (approximately 65,000 words) of publicity mass-distributed to over 1,000 carefully selected publicity outlets. The Publicity Department also devotes a considerable portion of its time to working with authors, students, researchers, etc., in checking manuscripts, furnishing information and presenting the Association's side of the story in controversial matters. The Chairman pointed out that the Publicity and Public Relations Department was functioning under the constant handicap of having to combat the press antagonism toward labor organizations with the result that labor publicity often travels by the shortest news circuit in the world-- "from the editor's desk to the wastepaper basket." Bookkeeping Department Between the time of the Ninth and Tenth Conventions, the Chairman reported, there has been vast change in the Bookkeeping and Accounting Department which has been expanded at least twofold from a manpower standpoint and completely streamlined in its methods and procedures from an operational standpoint. At this juncture, the Chairman stressed the importance of keeping the Association financially strong, of the necessity of bulwarking the central treasury instead of depleting it. "ALPA must keep the money coming in, in order to keep giving the pilots the representation which they have enjoyed and which is second to none. The new percentage of earnings dues system has worked out admirably well, but we still have the problem of delinquents--the 'slow-pays' and 'no-pays'. The Bookkeeping Department has estimated that 60 per cent of the membership meets its financial obligations--dues and assessments--promptly, that 25 per per cent are slow and require reminding and that 15 per cent are chronic delinquents." E. and O. Department The Education and Organization Department is well on the way to reaching the objectives for which it was founded--the steering of other organizations into sane and sensible collective bargaining and representation channels, the Chairman said. The largest of these ALPA affliated organizations is the Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association (ALSSA) with 1264 members. ALSSA is the authorized collective bargaining agent for stewards and stewardesses of 12 air lines and has negotiated 11 agreements. Although still young, ALSSA is publishing a quarterly paper entitled "Service Aloft" for its membership, making payment on its original loan from ALPA, and paying 4 cents per capita tax per month. It has 52 active local councils. The Air Carrier Pilots Association (Nonscheduled) and the Air Carrier Communications Operators Association have both negotiated one agreement to date. In addition to these three organizations, charters have been issued to four more; namely, the Air Carrier Mechanics Association, the Air Line Agents Association, the Air Carrier Flight Engineers Association, and the Air Carrier Navigators Association. Statistical Department The purposes of the Statistical and Research Department, which the Chairman called "ALPA's stockpile of information," were thoroughly explained to the convention delegates. "In every hearing negotiation or arbitration," the Chairman explained, "ALPA is always faced with an expensive array of lawyers and statisticians. It is not economically feasible for ALPA to do the same and the Statistical and Research Department, which is constantly compiling information for any eventuality, is the answer. Its function is primarily to build up a wealth of background and material for arbitration, mediation and negotiations in general." The Statistical and Research Department works in close harmony with the Employment Agreement and Bookkeeping Departments in making analysis of figures and providing statistical data and compilations. Washington Office The Association's Washington representation is above average, the Chairman said, and ALPA's Washington Office is the Association's principal listening post. Among its other duties, it maintains vital Washington contacts from the White House on down and is Headquarters' liaison link with the principal federal agencies. In addition to his department-by-department report on the state of Association, the Chairman also reported on the ALPA Executive Boards, the progress of the new building authorized by the Ninth Convention, the Air Line Pilots Association Federal Credit Union, and the AOA and National strikes. ALPA Executive Boards The Executive Boards have become practically small conventions, the Chairman stated, and because of their frequency of meeting have resulted in a situation where two conventions and three executive board meetings were held within a period of 18 months to the detriment of other Association activities. As a solution, he advocated greater intervals between meetings. Each Executive Board has grown progressively larger and proportionately more expensive, the Chairman said. The First Executive Board composed of 41 delegates representing 21 air lines and processed 32 resolutions at a cost of $3,671.37. The Second Executive Board meeting was attended by 45 delegates from 23 airlines, handled 61 resolutions, and cost $9,123.71. The Third Executive Board meeting was even larger and more expensive ... 5 delegates from 28 air lines at a cost of $11,220.79, and processed 49 resolutions. New Building in '49 The end of 1949 has been set as the deadline for completion of construction of ALPA's new building, the Chairman reported. The property, a 300 feet by 720 feet corner plot situated at the northwest corner of Cicero avenue and 55th street, immediately adjacent to the Chicago Municipal Airport, has been purchased and the contract for structural steel let, he said. Actual construction will begin during spring of 1949. "Completion of the building will mark the finishing step in the building of ALPA," the delegates were informed. "It will be a real and tangible asset to ALPA. We can do a lot of talking and planning, but until we are rooted to the ground with a home of our own--steel, bricks, land, homestead property--we're still shaky. It's security that you can't obtain in any other way." ALPA's Federal Credit Union, authorized by the Ninth Convention, has been established and put into action and work is being done on the ALPA Mutual Aid Plan, the Chairman said. AOA, NAL strikes The Chairman also touched briefly on the AOA strike and submitted a lengthy confidential report on the phases through which the National strike had passed and its present status. "The AOA strike," the Chairman said, was fought on a principle and no one needs to be told why the National strike occurred. To sacrifice this principle would be to permit the torpedoing of our declaration of independence in 1931, one of the principal articles of which was: a fair trial for every air line pilot in trouble." The Chairman was neither optimistic or pessimistic about the National strike being settled and said, "We are in negotiation." No Matter the Angle, the 10th ALPA Convention was BIG [[image3]] Regardless of what angle one looked at the Tenth Convention--whether from its pure physical size, the number of resolutions passed, or the vital accomplishments which came from it--it was big by any standards. This unusual bird's eye view of the fore part of the Convention in action, taken from overhead and looking toward the focal point of parliamentary control, the rostrum, the Convention nerve center, illustrates the vastness of the Tenth Convention as reflected by the number of delegates which were present and the scope of work accomplished. Delegates to the Tenth Convention came from the far corners of the world--among them the United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, South America, South Africa, Alaska, and Egypt--to make the Tenth Convention not only the largest but also one of the most cosmopolitan ever held by ALPA. Here's how the 152-delegate Tenth Convention stacked up with its forerunners: First Convention, 19 delegates; Second Convention, 20 delegates; Third Convention, 52 delegates; Fifth Convention, 69 delegates; Sixth Convention, 70 delegates; Seventh Convention, 68 delegates; Eighth Convention, 81 delegates; and Ninth Convention, 99 delegates.
