and each of them, respectfully request the Third Division, National Railroad' Adjustment Board, deny said claim, and grant said Railroad Companies, and each of them, such other relief to which they may be entitled.

(Exhibits not reproduced.)

OPINION OF BOARD: This is a dispute between the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company of Texas.

Prior to November. 1955, Carrier maintained 328 sections on its property. In November of 1955 Carrier decided to change the method of maintaining its tracks. On November 9, Carrier's representative wrote Petitioner's General Chairman advising that 108 sections would be abolished. The last paragraph of the letter concluded:

"As the seniority question and other matters are involved by these changes, I shall be glad to go over the matter in conference on November 21."

Thereafter, on November 29, the same representative of Carrier wrote to the General Chairman stating that a conference was held and suggested that at the next meeting the parties should reach an agreement as to rates to be paid operators on the various types of machines. Other material in the letter discussed seniority and the rate of pay and other matters irrelevant to the subject matter herein.

Thereafter 108 of the then existing 328 section gangs were abolished on March 19, 1956. On February 11th and 18th of 1957, the Carrier abolished additional section gangs without conference or negotiation with General Chairman.

The original claim was based on the contention that the action of the Carrier was contrary to the declared position of the Carrier in their letters of November 9 and 29, 1955. This is the only claim which may properly be considered by this Board. The letters referred to did not constitute an Agreement. The "position" of the Carrier may be changed by the Carrier at will. There must be a violation of an Agreement between the parties before this Board may sustain a claim.

For the foregoing reasons, we find the Agreement was not violated.

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 not violated.

AWARD