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Form I NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 9138
SECOND DIVISION Docket No.
9051
2-SOU-CM-182
The Second Division consisted of the regular members and in
addition Referee Rodney E. Dennis when award was rendered.
( Brotherhood Railway Carmen of the United States
Parties to Dispute:
( and Canada
(
( Southern Railway Company
Dispute: Claim of Employes:
1. That the Carrier violated the current Agreement when they failed to
call Carmen Jimmy Lash and Randall Tucker for a derailment within the
yard limits of Muscle Shoals, Alabama on March
31, 1979.
2. That the Carrier be ordered to pay Carmen Jimmy Lash and.Randall Tucker
thirteen
(13)
hours pay each at the rate of time and one-half.
F ind irg s
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 Joe 21,
193+.
This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute
involved herein.
Parties to said dispute were given due notice of hearing thereon.
Claimants S. Lash and R. Tucker are Carmen at Muscle Shoals, Alabama. They
hold regular Carmen assignments, as well as bid assignments as extra members of
the wrecking crew. On March
31, 1979,
a derailment occurred within the Muscle
Shoals Yard limits. The regular wrecking crew, consisting of the derrick
operator, four grotmdmen, and extra men, were called. Carrier also obtained the
assistance of an outside contractor. The contractor utilized its crane and
three groundmen.
Carrier's crew worked one end of the wreck, while the contractor worked the
other end, with the assistance of one of Carrier's extra men who had been called.
The Organization filed a claim on behalf of Claimants because they were
extra list wreckers and were not called while Carrier hired outsiders to do the
work of bargaining unit members. The Organization argues that by so doing,
Carrier has violated Rule
135
of the March 1,
1975
Agreement and Article VII of
the December
4, 1975
Agreement. These rules read in pertinent part as follows:
Form 1 Award No. 9138
Page 2 Docket No.
9051
2-SOU-CM-'82
"Rule
135
- When wrecking crews are called for wrecks or
derailments outside yard limits the regularly assigned
crew will accompany the outfit. For wrecks and derailments
within the yard limits sufficient carmen will be called to
perform the work if their services are needed."
"ARTICLE VII - WRECKING SERVICE
1. When pursuant to rules or practices, a carrier utilizes
the equipment of a contractor (with or without forces) for the
performance of wrecking service, a sufficient number of the
carrier's assigned wrecking crew, if reasonably accessible
to the wreck, will be called (with or without the carrier's
wrecking equipment and its operators) to work with the
contractor. The contractor's ground forces will not be
used, however, unless all available and reasonably accessible
members of the assigned wrecking crew are called. The
number of employees assigned to the carrier's wrecking crew
for purposes of this rule will be the number assigned as of
the date of this Agreement.
NOTE: In determining whether the carrier's assigned
wrecking crew is reasonably accessible to the
wreck, it will be assumed that the groundmen of
the wrecking crew are called at approximately
the same time as the contractor is instructed to
proceed to the work."
The Organization specifically points to the following sentence of Rule
135
as the cornerstone of its claim: "For wrecks and derailments within yard limits
sufficient carmen will be called to perform the work if their services are
needed." The Organization argues that Carrier should have utilized Carmen to
work with the contractor's crane and should not have allowed three outsiders to
work in the place of Carmen.
Carrier contends that it met the requirements of Rule
135
and Article VII.
It called all members of the regular wrecking crew and one extra man. These rules
only require that regularly assigned wrecking crew members be called. Extra list
wreck crew members are not regularly assigned and they are not covered by these
rules.
A careful review of the record of this case and the awards submitted by
each side in support of its position reveals that the cited awards are not
precisely "on all fours" with the facts of this case. None of the cases cited
address the issue of the use of outside equipment and outside forces for
rerailing operations within yard limits. We therefore must rely on the facts
contained in the record, the Agreement language in dispute, and generally
accepted labor relations principles to support a decision.
Form 1 Award No. 9138
Page
3
Docket No.
9051
2-SOU-CM-'82
The facts of the case are not in dispute. The derailment occurred within
yard limits. Carrier used the regularly assigned wrecking crew, one man from
the extra list, an outside contractor's crane and operator, and three outside
ground hands. Two Carmen (Claimants) were available to work but were not
called. The issue quite simply is should these men have been called to work with
the contractor's crane rather than allow the contractor to utilize his own
ground hands?
It is the opinion of this Board that Carrier should have utilized Carmen
to work with the contractor's crane rather than allow nonbargaining unit employes
to do the work. Rule
135
clearly states that for wrecks and derailments within
yard limits, sufficient Carmen will be called to perform the work.
In its submission, Carrier stated that it exercised its managerial
discretion to use the assigned wrecking crew to clear the derailment, but that if
it so chose, it could use any Carmen on duty to work derailments within yard
limits. This Board does not find fault with that position,
but
we cannot
subscribe to the concept that so long as Carrier utilizes the regular wreck
crew, it can then go outside and hire whomever it chooses to supplement that
crew and t3isregard the Carmen employed at the location. That interpretation
of Rule
135
could render the rule meaningless when carried to its ultimate
conclusion.
Rule
135
states that sufficient Carmen will be called to perform the
work. It is obvious from the facts.presented that three Carmen could have been
utilized in place of three of the contractor's ground hands. Eight ground hands,
two cranes, and two operators were required to clear the wreck. The ground hands
should have been Carrier's employes (Carmen). Rule
135
so states. The
Organization's argument that Argicle VII does not supercede Rule
135
or render
it inoperative when outside contractors are used is persuasive. The first two
lines of that article clearly state that Article VII is applied contingent on and
in harmony with other rules of the agreement. Rule
135
specifically applies to
the situation present in this case. It requires that Carrier utilize Carmen
and not other classes of employes to clear a wreck or a derailment in yard
limits. Carrier has violated the agreement by not doing so.
A W A R D
Claim sustained.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Second Division
Attest: Acting Executive Secretary
National Railroad Adjustment Board
.,~
By
-~R semarie Brasch - Administrative Assistant
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 16th day of June, 1982.
DISSENT OF CARRIER MEMBERS
TO
AWARD
9138,
DOCKET
9051
(Referee Dennis)
The Majority in this dispute gave a seriously flawed interpretation
of the correlation between Article VII of the December
4, 1975,
National
Agreement, and Rule
135
of the applicable Agreement between the parties.
While the Majority correctly stated that Article VII did not supercede
Rule
135,
they effectively deprived the Carrier of the benefits of Article VII
within yard limits by ruling that it was improper to utilize the services of a
contractor and its ground forces in the present case. Article VII of the
December
4, 1975
Agreement granted the Carrier's certain rights regarding the use
of contractors and their ground forces within the paramaters of the rules or
practices then in effect on the property. The rule on this property, Rule i35,
stated that for wrecks and derailments within yard limits "SLfficier.t carmen
will be called ....if their services are needed." In the instant case, the Carrier
called the regularly assigned wrecking crew, consisting of four groundmen and wreck
engineer, as well as an extra ground.man. In addition, the Carrier, pursuant to
Article VII, utilized an outside contractor which utilized its own crane and three
groundmen. It is hard to fathom in such circumstances how the Majority arrived at
its ill-conceived conclusion that the Carrier failed to call "sufficient careen"
to assist in the rerailing operation. The mere fact that groundmen of the contractor were present on the scene does not, ear se, constitute a violation of
either Article VII or Rule 135. On the contrary, such action is expressly provided
for in these Rules.
While the Majority at page 2 of the Award ostensibly implies that a
careful review was made of the Awards cited by the parties, their statement that
none of the Awards involved the use of outside equipment and outside forces within
-2- DISSENT OF CARRIER MEMBERS
TO AWARD
9138,
DOCKET
9051
yard limits belies such assertion. Second Division Award Nos.
77+4
and
8009,
which were presented in this case, both deal with this exact subject.
In Award No.
7744
(Marx), a derailment of two diesel locomotives
occurred within yard limits. In order to rerail the engines, the Carrier in
that case utilized the services of carmen at the location to rerail one unit
called in the services of an outside contractor and, its ground forces to rerai.l
the other locomotive unit. The "Findings" in Award No.
774+
are germane to the
instant case and read, in pertinent part, as follows:
"The Board finds no conflict between Article VII, Section 1,
of the
1975
Mediation Agreement and Rule 120. The former memorializes the Carrier's right to use outside wrecking service while
requiring the use of wrecking crew members as specified but
'pursuant to rules or practices'. Rule 120 is not superceded by
Article VII, Section 1.
The Board in Award No.
774+
recognized that Article VII did rot supercede the
pertinent, Agreement rule, however, the Board also clearly stated that the then
existing rules did not nullify Article VII. Both rules must be read and applied
in conjunction with each other. It was in this task that the Majority so badly
failed in the instant case.
Similarly, Second Division Award No.
8009
(A. VanWart) addressed this
question of the use of a contractor and its ground. forces within yard limits ;o
assist in rerailing operations. In Award No.
8009,
three of the contractors
groundmen were used in tandem with two of the Carrier's carmen. This is as opposed
to the use of five of the Carrier's groundmen with three of the contractors g.roundmen in the present case. As in the case at bar, the Employees in Award No.
8009
took the position that "sufficient" carmen were not called due to the fact that the
contractor had used its ground forces. The Board in Award
8009
considered this
argument and denied the claim on the following basis:
DISSENT OF CARRIER
MEMBERS
TO AWARD
9138,
DOCKET 9051,
* -The mere presence of the contractor's groundmen does not
stand as a basis for alleging violation of Rule 120. The burden
to prove the case here rested. with the Petitioner. They failed."
The Majority in the present dispute allowed the Employees to abrogate their
responsibility to sustain the burden of proof which was incumbent upon them as
the moving party and in lemming fashion accepted the frivolous argument that the
presence of any of the contractor's ground.men mandated the use of additional
carmen. This was not the intent of either Article VII or Rule
135,
nor do they
so provide.
The Majority, in the guise of interpretation, did a severe injustice to
the language of both Article VII and Rule
135
by adding restrictions to said Rules
which do not exist. While this Dissent can not change the "bottan line" in the
present case, it is hoped that it will be instrumental in advising the reader
tha-c Award No.
9138
is a maverick decision which should not be followed in ~r:e
future.
Hence, We dissent:
. M. agnan'
D.
M. Lefkow
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