SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY
(Pacific Lines)
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the General Committee of The Order of Railroad Telegraphers on the Southern Pacific (Pacific Lines), that:
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: There is in evidence an agreement by and between the parties to this dispute, effective December 1, 1944, reprinted March 1, 1951, and as amended.
At page 56 of said agreement are listed the positions existing at Oakland (16th Street) and other positions at Oakland, California, on the effective date of said agreement. However, subsequent to the rearrangement of the Carrier's telegraph service employes at Oakland (16th Street), Oakland (First and Broadway), Oakland (Kirkham Street), and Oakland Pier, the Carrier established around-the-clock telegraph service at Oakland (16th Street) and at Oakland (Kirkham Street).
At or about 11:57 A. M. on March 7, 1959, E. L. Wilson, a clerical employe in the Oakland Diesel Shop, telephoned the following message to the telegrapher at Martinez, California:
In this connection, the interest of employes represented by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks is further demonstrated by the fact that employes represented by both the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks and The Order of Railroad Telegraphers are signatory to the Agreement of August 21, 1954.
Attention is also called to Award 7826 on this property, where it was found that telephone call passing between train dispatcher and roundhouse foreman covering instruction from former as to crews to be called by latter did not involve the Telegraphers' Agreement.
The facts in this claim readily establish that the telephone conversation between the clerk at Oakland and telegrapher at Martinez on the date of this claim did not involve or contravene any provision of the current agreement. The conversation was purely an exchange of information pertinent to the normal functioning of the Mechanical Department, and in no manner involved the craft here making claim.
Carrier has conclusively shown herein the claim is unwarranted and totally lacking in merit, and if not dismissed for lack of proper notice to other interested parties, Carrier asks that it be denied.
OPINION OF BOARD: On March 7, 1959, a clerical employe at the Oakland Diesel Shop telephoned the following message to the Telegrapher at Martinez, California:
We cannot agree with the Petitioner that the "character of the communication transmitted by the clerical employe is the type of communication work long held by your Board to be the exclusive preserve of the employes subject to the Telegraphers' Agreement." This message does not involve the movement of trains or the safety of persons and property. This Division of the Board has adopted the principle that where the Scope Rule does not describe or define the work to be performed by the employes-and the Scope 12607-26 489
Rule of this Agreement does not do so-then the Petitioner has the burden to show that the transmission of this type of message was by history, custom and tradition reserved exclusively to Telegraphers. This, Petitioner has failed to do. See Award 12122.
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