Award No. 9123
Docket No. MS-10684
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
ROBERT L. RAINES
SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY AND BROTHERHOOD OF
MAINTENANCE OF WAY EMPLOYES
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
The Statement of Claim as expressed by
the Petitioner is as follows:
Petitioner desires an Award reinstating him to his position of
employment with Southern, and restoring his full rights from
April 15, 1958, date of discharge, and for any loss of earnings
suffered from said date, the same to be determined upon the
question of whether Petitioner's non-compliance with the Union
Shop Agreement between Southern and Brotherhood was due to
his wilfull refusal to pay an arrearage in dues to Brotherhood, or
was failure to pay fault on his part, or whether failure to comply
was by reason of a series of circumstances not of his making, or
was it negligence, intentional or unintentional, or arbitrary and
capricious action by Brotherhood, and whether same was concurred
in and supported by Southern.
OPINION OF BOARD:
The present claim concerns the interpretation
of the controlling Union Shop Agreement. Specific procedural machinery
has been set up by that Agreement to resolve all such questions. The
prescribed procedure is final and binding upon the parties and, culminating
as it does in a hearing before a neutral arbitrator, contains adequate
checks and balances for the protection of the interests of all concerned, including those of the individual employes.
In the instant situation, the procedure established by the Agreement
has been exhausted by the parties and a final and binding decision resolving
the issues was handed down by the neutral arbitrator. That the Claimant,
unlike most of the other employes in the dispute, elected not to appear at
the hearing before the neutral arbitrator does not endow him with additional
rights to prolong the dispute. It is incumbent upon the Claimant to abide
by the prescribed procedure and the claim will be denied.
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:
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That the Carrier, Organization and Employe involved in this dispute
are respectively Carrier, Organization and Employe 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 not violated.
AWARD
Claim denied.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of THIRD DIVISION
ATTEST: S. H. Schulty
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 16th day of December, 1959.