NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
SECOND DIVISION
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Carroll R. Daugherty when award was rendered.
THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY
COMPANY (Western Lines)
DISPUTE: CLAIM OF EMPLOYES: 1. That under the current agreement Carmen Stonehocky and Wells and Carman Helper A. J. Warren and/or any other employes that may be assigned subsequent from the appeal date of this case, were improperly assigned to a work week Wednesday through Sunday with rest days of Monday and Tuesday.
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: Prior to September 1, 1949, Carmen (car repairers) Stonehocky and Wells, and Carman Helper A. J. Warren, hereinafter referred to as the claimants, worked regularly on assignments of six days per week, Monday through Saturday, first shift hours 8:00 A. M. to 12:00 Noon and 1:00 P. M. to 5:00 P. M. on the car department repair track located at Wellington, Kansas.
On or subsequent to September 1, 1949, these claimants were arbitrarily assigned by the carrier to position of car repairers and helper on the first and only shift 8:00 A. M. to 12:00 Noon and 1:00 P. M. to 5:00 P. M., Wednesday through Sunday with rest days of Monday and Tuesday at Wellington, Kansas.
which have been needed on Sundays prior to September 1, 1949, may thereafter be assigned on Sunday.
The sole question at issue in this dispute, therefore, is whether or nor the duties of the positions here involved could reasonably be met by assigning the entire car department force at Wellington to a Monday through Friday work week, or, on the other hand, whether the nature of the work is such that service is needed on Saturdays and Sundays, necessitating the staggering of the car repair track forces. Exhibit E, submitted herewith, showing cars repaired on Saturday and Sunday during June-November, 1949, compared with July and August and September, for each 1950 and 1951 clearly proves that such work was necessary to be performed on Saturdays and Sundays prior to September 1, 1949, and has and still is necessary to be performed since that date.
The employes have failed to produce any evidence, and the carrier asserts there is none, that will show carrier can meet its operational requirements by assigning the claimants to a Monday through Friday work week. Carrier has shown that it is necessary to its continuous operation that the service, duties or operations here involved be performed seven days per week, and have been performed seven days per week during the history of the railroad. The employes are simply trying, through the medium of a Board Award, to get a requirement that punitive rates be paid car repair track forces on Saturdays and Sundays as such. This principle is flatly denied in the first sentence of Rule 6, paragraph (c) of the supplemental agreement dated May 13, 1949, which is quoted for the Board's convenience:
Therefore, carrier respectfully requests that this Board deny the employes' claim in its entirety.
FINDINGS: The Second Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds that:
The carrier or carriers and the employe or employes involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employe within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act as approved June 21, 1934.
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.
After the 40-Hour Week Agreement became effective on September 1, 1949, car repairers Stonehocky and Wells and Carman helper A. J. Warren, claimants in this case, were assigned to Wednesday-Sunday work weeks, with rest days of Monday and Tuesday, on the carrier's "running" car repair tracks at Wellington, Kansas. Before the above-mentioned date these employes had been assigned to Monday-Saturday work weeks.
As in the case decided by Award No. 1599, the organization here has the burden of establishing that the carrier's action was and is in violation of the letter of agreement of October 6, 1950, or of the provisions of the 40Hour Week Agreement, signed by the parties.
For the reasons set forth in our Award No. 1599, we do not find that the organization has sustained this burden. We think the organization has failed to show that (1) the letter of agreement is controlling in respect to "running" car repairs of the sort involved in the instant case; (2) there is and has been, since September 1, 1949, no need for the assignment of the protested work weeks; and (3) such assignments are and have been in violation of the meaning and intent of the 40-hour week rules. 1613-11 22S
DISSENT OF LABOR MEMBERS TO AWARD NOS. 1599, 1608, 1609,
1610, 1611, 1612, 1613, 1614, 1615, 1616, anal 1617.
Prior to September 1, 1949 the regular bulletined hours for car department repair track forces were 8 a. m. to 12 noon and 12:30 p. m. to 4:30 p. m., Monday through Saturday (six days a week) in conformity with Rule 2 of the agreement effective August 1, 1945. The regular bulletined hours of these forces did not include Sundays or Holidays.
The agreement as amended September 1, 1949 did not change the regular bulletined hours of the repair track forces and did not authorize the inclusion of Sundays or Holidays in the weekly five day assignment of these forces.
The letter agreement of October 6, 1950 constitutes a mutual settlement of the dispute regarding staggered work weeks for repair track forces. Since the instant repair track force is not one of the points where a staggered work week is authorized, it follows that the claim should have been sustained retroactive to and including October 16, 1950.