Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No,
$427
SECOND DIVISION Docket No. 8135-T
2-MP-SM-'80
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Abraham Weiss when award was rendered.
( Sheet Metal Workers' International Association
Parties to Dispute
(
( Missouri Pacific Railroad Company
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company violated the controlling
agreement, particularly Rule
65,
when on May
9, 1977,
other than Sheet
Metal Worker was assigned the duties of using welding torch to,unsolder
copper pipes from compressor on air conditioner, change and apply new
compressor and resolder copper pipes to the compressor, Diesel Shop,
Fort Worth, Texas.
2. That accordingly, the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company be ordered to
compensate Sheet Metal Worker E. W. Sparks in the amount of four hours
(1+') at pro rata rate,
may 9, 1977.
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.
The instant claim arose when, on May
9, 1977,
Carrier assigned an electrician
at its Fort Worth, Texas Shops to unsolder copper pipes from a compressor on a
window unit air conditioner, change and apply a new compressor, and resolder
copper pipes to the compressor. Petitioner alleges such action violated Rule
65
and that electricians have not performed the pipe work which is at issue here.
Rule
65,
Classification of Work, reads:
"Sheet metal workers work shall consist of tinning,
coppersmithing and pipefitting in shops, yards, buildings,
and on passenger coaches and engines of all kinds; the
building, erecting, assembling, installing, dismantling
and maintaining parts made of sheet copper, brass, tin,
zinc, white metal, lead, black, planished, pickled and
galvanized iron of 10-gauge and lighter, including
Form 1 Award No.
8427
Page
2
Docket No,
8135-T
2-MP-SM-'
80
'brazing, soldering, tinning, leading and babbitting; the
bending, fitting, cutting, threading, brazing, connecting
and disconnecting of air, water, gas, oil and steam pipes;
the operation of babbitt fires; oxy-acetylene, thermit and
electric welding on work generally recognized as sheet
metal workers' work, and all other work generally recognized
as sheet metal workers' work."
Petitioner cited affidavits as to performance of the work in question by
Sheet Metal Workers.
The Electrical Workers' Orgknization, the third party in the irAtant dispute,
filed a submission contending that the work involved was properly assigned to
them in accordance with past practice and submitted statements, including one
from the Master Mechanic at Fort Worth, that electricians had performed such
work.
Carrier took the position that electricians have, for years, performed "all.
the repair work on air conditioner units such as changing compressors, repairing
freon leaks and changing the units . _ "; that electricians at Fort Worth performed
all work on window air conditioners, including unsoldering and soldering the coil
from the air compressor; that such work -- a past practice -- was performed by
the electricians prior to the effective date of the applicable Agreement,
Carrier also argued that the Sheet Metal Workers' Classification of Work
Rule makes no mention of air conditioning work and that the Sheet Metal Workers'
Organization had served a Sec~ion
6
notice seeking to have piping in connection
with refrigerants inserted in its Classification of Work Rule, but that work on
air conditioners has not been contracted to that Organization especially with
respect to tubing soldered to air conditioning units.
We have examined the Awards cited by both parties and find both sustaining
and denial Awards, The Awards cited refer either to disputes on other Carriers
or to other locations of the Carrier involved in the instant case. In addition,
the claims involved in these prior Awards dealt with, for example, the installation
of a centralized combination heater and air-conditioning system and a dispute
over the assignment of piping work from the cooling radiator outside the building
to the compressor located within the structure, (Award
671+4);
maintenance of
air conditioned coaches involving the repair and installation of new tubing to
carry the freon gas used in air conditioning units installed on such cars as well
as the servicing of such freon gas lines (Award
2898);
restoring a three-ton air
conditioner to service, involving the disconnectiong of freon gas piping from the
compressor to condensor coil and the installation of a new compressor which was
of a different type and thus required cutting, fitting and silver soldering
various lengths of pipe in connecting the new compressor (Award
7579);
and
disconnecting refrigerating coils from a degreasing machine by melting the solder
joints, removing the coils and resoldering the joints to reconnect the coils,
without performing repair work,on the coils themselves (Award
6924),
The record indicates that at Carrier's Fort Worth facility, an electrician
filed a claim on February
28, 1977
because a Sheet Metal Worker, on whose behalf
the instant claim was filed, "changed out a shop air conditioner compressor on
Form 1
Page
3
Award No.
8427
Docket No.
8135-T
2-MP-SM-180
February
24, 1977",
and in so doing "disconnected and connected piping to the
carnpressor". Carrier's Master Mechanic Dent sustained the electrician's claim
on April
14, 1977
stating in part, "Air conditioning work is not covered in the
agreement as belonging to any particular craft"; and "In accordance with the
long-standing practice of the electricians performing air conditioning work, this
claim will be honored on a local level". The claim currently before us was
filed May
18, 1977
-- about one month later.
No probative evidence has been presented that at Carrier's Fort Worth
location, electricians have not performed work of the nature here in dispute,
as a matter of past practice. This is borne out by the payment of the claim to
the electricians on April
14, 1977
and the reasons cited by Master Mechanic Dent
for sustaining that claim.
This is buttressed by the fact that no evidence was furnished by Petitioner
to contradict the statement of Master Mechanic Sheridan., who served in that
position at Carrier's Fort worth facility from April
16, 1977
to August
31, 1978.
In denying the instant claim, Master Mechanic Sheridan wrote the Organization's
Local Chairman:
"I am advised by the electricians at the Fort 'Worth facility,
that for many years the electricians have, in fact, performed
all the repair work on air conditioner units such as changing
compressors, repairing freon leaks and
well as other electrical repairs as required."
changing the units as
The Electricians'
Organization also
submitted a statement from Master
Mechanic Sheridan which stated that during his tenure as Master Mechanic, "the
Electricians did all pipe work in connection with repairs to air conditioning
equipment in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas".
Given the evidence of past practice at this location, and no record of
any prior protest by Petitioner at this location with respect to electricians
performing the disputed work, we must recognize and give effect to such longestablished past practice, particularly when the work complained of is
hot
explicitly assigned to Petitioner under its Classification of Work Rule.
Accordingly, we find that the established practice was for electricians to perform
the work at issue and that such practice prevails. We will deny the claim.
A W A R D
Claim denied.
Attest: Executive Secretary
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
National Railroad Adjustment Board
BY . -
o marie Branch - Administrative Assistant
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this
6th day of August,
1380.