NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

THIRD DIVISION

Edward F. Carter, Referee

CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC

RAILROAD COMPANY

(1) The Carrier violated the provisions of the effective agreement, when it assigned to an employs holding no seniority as a Water Service Mechanic, the work of repairing a water main at Lone Tree, on November 9, 1949;

(2) Water Service Mechanic J. G. Cornwell, be allowed four (4) hours at the Water Service Mechanic's rate of pay because of this violation.

"(b) Water Service Mechanics: Mechanics whose work shall consist of the following: The installing, dismantling, and maintaining all pipe work and appurtenances thereto (above and below ground), such as pipe made of wood, wrought iron, steel, cast iron, brass tubing, well casing, lead, vitried or any oter class of pipe commonly used for the purpose of conveying water, steam, gas, oil and air. This at all roundhouses, shops, stationary power plants, boiler rooms, pump stations, oil stations, passenger stations, water tanks, freight houses, eating houses, car sheds, stock yards and car yards, including water cranes at all shops and station terminals and intermediate points."

that the conditions were as they were in this instance and that the work of repairing the leakage was completed in four hours by one man, we respectfully petition the Board to deny this claim.

It is hereby affirmed that all data herein contained is known to the employes' representative and is hereby made a part of this dispute.

OPINION OF BOARD: On November 9, 1949, Carrier's Agent at Lone Tree, Iowa, discovered a leak in the water pipe supplying the depot at that point. The leak was underground and resulted in the formation of a large mud hole on Carrier's property which was somewhat hazardous to vehicles operating in the immediate territory. The Agent hired an employe of the city to make the repairs. The Organization contends that the work belonged to the Water Service Mechanics and that the Agreement was violated when the work was assigned to one not under the Agreement.

There is no dispute in the record that the repair work here performed is within the Scope of the Maintenance of Way Agreement. The Carrier attempts to justify its action on the ground that an emergency existed. In this respect the record shows that the water service pipe sprung a leak during the night. The Agent observed it the next morning. A mud hole about one foot deep had formed. This was about ten feet from the depot on railroad property. Automobiles and trucks made use of the private road in going to and from a grain elevator and Carrier's ICL track. The evidence indicates, however, that use of the road could have been made irrespective of the condition created by the defective water pipe. We think that the Agent would have been justified in shutting off the water and in taking suitable precautions to alleviate any hazard which the mud hole presented by sign or barricade. But the emergency was not such that claimant could not have been called to perform the repair work when, as the record shows, it involved only three hours' delay. It does not seem to us that the situation was such an emergency as to require the repairs to be made at once. We do not think the situation here presented is such as would warrant the Carrier in disregarding its contractual obligations to the Water Service Mechanics.

FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, after giving the parties to this dispute due notice of hearing thereon, and upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:

That the Carrier and the Employes involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934;

That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein; and

That the Agreement was violated.

AWARD