THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, ST. PAUL AND
PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY
delay by the employes in submitting this dispute to your Board gives credence to the position taken by the carrier herein.
OPINION OF BOARD: On April 15, 1950, effective with the completion of the third trick Telegrapher's assignment on Position Number 75 at the Chillicothe Station, Missouri, the Carrier abolished that position.
The Organization's initial protest was answered by the Carrier's letter of May 4, 1950. Subsequent appeal steps were properly pursued and final declination on the property was made by the Carrier on June 7, 1950. Further correspondence and conferences occurred and ended with the Carrier's letter to the Organization dated July 2, 1951.
On December 29, 1955, the Organization wrote the Board of its intention to file with this Division an ex parte submission pertaining to this socalled unadjusted dispute.
The Organization offered no explanation for the delay of approximately five and a half years in progressing the claim to this Board-nor does the record reveal any extenuating conditions. Therefore, we can only conclude that the Organization was solely responsible for the delay.
Even the parties' correspondence and conferences, subsequent to the Carrier's final declination on June 7, 1950, ended on July 2. 1951, some four years and nearly six months before the Organization notified the Board of its intention.
The Railway Labor Act has established sound and orderly procedures for the disposition of all claims, grievances and disputes. One of the stated purposes of that Act is "to provide for the prompt and orderly settlement of all disputes. , . :' Even the most prejudicted observer would hesitate to say that the Organization sought a prompt settlement in this case. (Emphasis ours.)
In reaching our decision, we were not unmindful of the time limitation provisions of the August 21, 1954 National Agreement. However, the National Agreement cannot be used to set aside or thwart the congressional intention; nor is there reason to believe that the parties to the National Agreement contemplated such a purpose. Since the Organization unreasonably slept on its rights for so many years, we must dismiss this claim.
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