Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No.
7553
SECOND DIVISION Docket No.
7433
2-WT-CM-'78
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Herbert L. Marx, Jr. when award was rendered.
( System Federation No. 106, Railway Employes'
(_ Department, A. F. of L. - C. I. 0.
Parties to Dispute: ( (Carmen)
( Washington Terminal Company
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That under the current agreement car cleaner, Lorenzo Thorne, was
unjustly dealt with when he was dismissed and dropped from the
rolls and seniority of the Washington Terminal Company effective
August 23,
1976.
2. That accordingly the Washington Terminal Company be ordered to
return car cleaner Lorenzo Thorne to the service of the Washington
Terminal Company with seniority and vacation rights unimpaired and
compensated for all time lost since July 27,
1976.
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.
Parties to said dispute waived
right of appearance at
hearing thereon.
Claimant was suspended on July 26,
1976,
for his actions in relation
to two of the Carrier's security officers on that date, following an
incident which had occurred with one of the officers the previous day.
Following a fair and impartial hearing, the Claimant was dismissed from
service on August
23, 1976.
The Carrier determined from the investigative hearing that the
Claimant had refused to give the security officers answers to reasonable
questions as to his name and status and had subsequently become resistant
and belligerent. While other testimony was offered to suggest that the
security officers had been provocative in their conduct, the record does
Form 1
Page
2
Claim denied.
Attest: Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board
Award No. 7553
Docket No.
71+33
2-WT-CM-'78
not support a finding that the Carrier acted in an unreasonable or arbitrary
fashion in reaching its decision that the Claimant had been disorderly.
Whether or not the Claimant was acting in an improper fashion in operating
a bicycle on the Carrier's property is not the issue here. What is at
issue is is whether or not the Claimant acted in an improper manner on
July 25 and July 26, 1976, when questioned. The Board finds no reason to
disturb the finding of the Carrier.
The severity of the penalty might be questioned were it not for the
previous record of the Claimant, which shows a 30-day suspension only four
months earlier for two incidents of threatening supervisors with bodily
harm. Had the Claimant taken the earlier disciplinary penalty to heart,
it seems clear that he could have so conducted himself as to avoid the
confrontation which caused his dismissal. He failed to do so, and the
Carrier's action cannot be gainsaid.
A W A R D
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
semarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 16th day of June, 1978.