NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: It has been a practice in the past for the Carrier to furnish boarding and camp cars in which gang employes could eat and sleep. Beginning approximately thirty years ago, cooks were provided for boarding cars and it was agreed that the Carrier would furnish all the equipment for the boarding cars (cooking utensils, dishes, silverware, stoves, refrigerators, etc.) and pay the cook's wages, and the gang employes would maintain a fund to buy the provisions. It was agreed that the men employed as cooks would be in the Signal Helper classification. After building up seniority as Signal Helpers, some of the cooks used their seniority to gain promotion to other positions classified in the Signalmen's Agreement. Though some of the cooks proved they could be good mechanics, it was later agreed that because the men hired as cooks generally did not make good mechanics, they would be denied the right to promotion but would be entitled to other (seniority, displacement, recall, etc.) rights under the Signalmen's Agreement.
Even though cooks and dining facilities had been furnished for a number of years, the Carrier began a unilateral practice of elminating them. One example is involved in Docket No. SG-12380. The Carrier's action of elminating cooks and dining facilities from signal gangs has been the subject of numerous conference discussions, but the Carrier continued to eliminate cooks and to work gangs on which the cooks had been eliminated. Finally the Brotherhood's General Chairman, Mr. R. A. Watkins, filed a grievance with the Carrier on June 10, 1960, account gangs and crews not being equipped with dining and kitchen car facilities as required by the Agreement, particularly Rule 78 and others which make reference to these facilities. In the same letter the General Chairman stated that if the gangs and crews were not so equipped within thirty days, claims for meals for the employes would be filed. The General Chairman's grievance of June 10, 1960, is attached hereto and identified as Brotherhood's Exhibit No. 1.
This matter was discussed in conference on July 14, 1960, and on August 23, 1960, the Carrier wrote a letter of denial which is attached hereto as Brotherhood's Exhibit No. 2.
OPINION OF BOARD: The Brotherhood contends that Carrier violated Article V of the August 21, 1954 Agreement since it failed to give written reasons for denying the claim, within sixty days from the date the General Chairman's claim was allegedly filed on June 10, 1960. The record shows that the alleged claim of June 10, 1960 was actually a letter of that date from the General Chairman to Mr. H. Jensen, Signal Engineer. Rather than a claim, the letter warned that claims would be filed unless Carrier took action to rectify certain conditions. This is clear from the first two paragraphs of the letter, which read as follows:
On August 30, 1960, the General Chairman did file specific claims indicating the dates of violation and the names of claimants. The Carrier then responded to this claim within the 60 days period with reasons for denial of the claim. In view of the fact that Carrier did comply with Article V of the August 21, 1954 Agreement, the Brotherhood's original contention is overruled.
With respect to the issue of the violation, this issue involving Rule 78 of the Signalmen's Agreement, was considered in Award 12955 and claim was denied.
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
That on the basis of the reasons set forth in Award 12955, we deny this claim.