PARTIES TO DISPUTE:



STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the General Committee of The Order of Railroad Telegraphers on the Norfolk and Western Railway that:




EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: The agreements between the parties are available to your Board and by this reference are made a part hereof. On the initial dates of the claims, the controlling agreement between the parties was one effective December 1, 1939, revised September 1, 1949. This agreement was superseded by the now current agreement effective February 16, 1958. The instant claim begins under one agreement and continues under another but no rule changes were made which create any difference between the claim dates prior to February 16, 1958 and those subsequent thereto.


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an intent not to change the existing interpretations. This Carrier and the Telegraphers' Organization at the time of the adoption of the Scope Rule into the Agreement effective September 1, 1949, and the current Agreement effective February 16, 1958, were fully cognizant of the fact that under the previous Agreements the work of transmitting and receiving messages and reports by teletype-printers located outside of telegraph offices was not being treated as exclusively reserved to the classes of employes listed in the Telegraphers' Agreement. Consequently, as your Board said in Third Division Award 4791, it must be held that the re-adoption of the rule, in the effective Agreement in the instant case as well as in other earlier Agreements, was not intended to change the meaning previously given to it.






The Carrier's position as set forth in this submission clearly proves that there is no merit whatever to the Employes' claims in this case. In support of its position, the Carrier cites the following Third Division Awards:


652 2679 4643 4889 5318 5619 6007 6603 6788 6996 7154
653 3003 4733 4922 5404 5660 6159 6604 6824 7031 7401
700 4464 4791 5079 5416 5702 6363 6758 6903 7066 7402
752 4512 4827 5109 5468 5777 6364 6778 6929 7076 7403
1708 4585 2879 5120 5564 5866 6487 6779 6959 7153

The Carrier desires to point out that the jurisdiction of the Third Division, National Railroad Adjustment Board, is limited to the matter of interpretation or application of agreements and that such Division has no jurisdiction whatsoever to write any agreement or to read any non-existent rule into an agreement, which it would be doing if it sustained the instant claims. Denial of the six claims in the instant case is, therefore, respectfully requested.


All material used in this submission was presented to or was know by the Employes while this claim was being progressed on the property.




OPINION OF BOARD: The ultimate and narrow issue presented by this dispute is whether the Carrier is obligated by its agreement with the telegraphers to assign an employe of that class or craft to attend teletype machines which have been installed at places where no telegraphers are employed for the sole purpose of reciving communications which formerly were received by means of the telephone from nearby telegraph offices.


While the record indicates that these parties have established certain rights and obligations concerning the use of teletype equipment, there is no showing that the Carrier has obligated itself in the manner contended for by the Employes.


It is well established that in disputes of this nature the complaining party must present convincing proof in support of its position. This the Employes have failed to do, and their claim, therefore, must be denied.


In view of this conclusion it is unnecessary to consider other questions raised in the record.

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FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, 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





    Claim denied.


              NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD By Order of THIRD DIVISION


              ATTEST: S. H. Schulty

              Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 26th day of September 1963.