NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
Nathan Engelstein, Referee
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS,
FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYES
MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the
Brotherhood (GL-5806) that:
1. Carrier violated the Clerks' Agreement when, effective Sunday, August 30, 1964 and each subsequent Sunday, it removed from
under the scope and operation of the Clerks' Agreement, a part of
the station platform work, consisting of handling the U.S. Mail
off and on Passenger Train No. 3 at Newport, Arkansas, and required Train Porters, employes of another craft and class, covered
by another Agreement, to perform that work, which was in violation of Rules 1, 2, 3, 5, 25, 45 and other related rules of the Clerks'
Agreement.
2. Carrier shall be required to compensate Chief Clerk-Cashier
T. L. Robinson for a minimum call of two hours at the punitive
rate of $3.97875 per hour, amount $7.96, for each Sunday, August 30,
September 6, 13, 20, 27, October 4 and 11, 1964, total 7 dates, amount
$55.72, with claims continuing on the same basis for the claimant or
his successor(s) for each Sunday, subsequent to October 11, 1964,
until violation is discontinued.
NOTE: All claims are subject to wage increase of 9 cents per
hour, effective January 1, 1964 and 9 cents per hour
effective January 1, 1965, per Mediation Wage Agreement A-7127 and A-7128, of November 20, 1964, and all
subsequent wage increases.
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: Newport, Arkansas, is located
on the Carrier's operating division, known as the Arkansas Division, approximately 80 miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas.
For many years, the Carrier has maintained a clerical force in the Agent's
office located in the passenger station at Newport, Arkansas.
ments of Rule 43 of the Clerks' Agreement have not been met. See
Third Division Award No. 11754.
Effective August 30, 1964, the Carrier discontinued calling ChiefClerk-Cashier on Sundays to load and unload mail at Newport and
train porter on Train No. 3 performs the work. It being your contention that this is work reserved exclusively to clerks.
The work of handling U.S. Mail on and off trains is subject
to the control of the U.S. Post Office Department and, therefore, has
not been reserved to any craft. Mail has been handled by several
classes of employes, such as train porters, trainmen, telegraphers,
clerks and Express Agency employes, and has never been assigned
exclusively to any craft or class of employe.
For the reasons set forth above, the claim here presented is
invalid. Furthermore, for the reasons stated herein, there has been
no violation of the applicable agreement and this claim, therefore, is
respectfully declined.
OPINION OF BOARD: Carrier abolished the general yard clerk position at its Newport, Arkansas station and rearranged the hours and assigned
duties of the remaining clerical positions. Under the new arrangement, no
clerk was on duty on Sundays and the loading and unloading of United States
Mail for Train No. 3 was performed by the on-train porters.
The Brotherhood, on behalf of Mr. T. L. Robinson, Chief Clerk Cashier
at Newport, makes claim that Carrier violated the Clerks' Agreement when,
effective Sunday, August 30, 1964, and each subsequent Sunday, it removed
work from employes under this Agreement and required employes of another craft to perform it.
In its denial, Carrier maintains that the handling of United States Mail
is not reserved to any particular craft. It also asserts that on-train employes
have placed mail in platform boxes or deposited it in the station after removal
from trains. It points out that in order to support a claim for the exclusive
right to perform specific work under a general scope rule, Brotherhood must
prove a past practice on a system-wide basis. Since there is no showing of
such a practice, Carrier contends that the claim is without merit.
The record establishes that the work of handling the United States Mail
off and on the passenger trains at Newport, Arkansas was performed for
thirty-four years by employes subject to the Clerks' Agreement. Although
there is no evidence to support a system-wide practice of clerical employes
exclusively performing this work, it appears that the parties by their action
mutually understood and agreed that at the Newport station this work was
under the jurisdiction of employes covered by the Clerks' Agreement. The
record further shows that the parties negotiated a contract in 1952 without
altering the practice, and clerical employes continued to perform this work
at Newport.
The work that was performed on the Sundays in question was the same
work handled by claimant, Chief Clerk Cashier Robinson during his regular
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workweek. Under Rule 24 of the Clerks' Agreement Claimant had the right
to perform this work and Carrier acted improperly when it assigned it on
Sundays to employes of another craft.
For the reason stated we hold that the Agreement was violated, and the
.claim is sustained.
FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the
whole record and all the evidence, finds and holds:
That the parties waived oral hearing;
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 violated.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of THIRD DIVISION
ATTEST: S. H. Schulty
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 19th day of January 1967.
Keenan Printing Co., Chicago, Ill. Printed in U.S.A.
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