Award No. 15748
Docket No. SG-15180
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
(Supplemental)
Thomas J. Kenan, Referee
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD SIGNALMEN
GRAND TRUNK WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
Claim of the General Committee of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad
Company that:
(a) The Carrier violated the current Signalmen's Agreement,
as amended, when it arranged for a contractor to furnish a generator
and connect it to a line which lights switches at the "top end" of the
yard at Port Huron following a severe storm on Monday, June 10,
1963. (The contractor kept a man on duty with the generator twelve
(12) hours each night June 10 through 18, 1963.)
(b) The Carrier be required to compensate Signal Maintainer
O. Neubauer and Assistant Maintainer C. A. Logan for six (6) hours'
overtime pay each for each night the contractor's employe was on
duty with the generator that was furnishing electric power to switch
lights on Claimant's assigned territory. [Carrier's File: 8390-1 (18)]
EMPLOYES' STATEMENT OF FACTS: The claimants, Messrs. Neubauer
and Logan, are signal maintenance employes in charge of signal and allied
apparatus on a specific territory. Their assignment covers electric switch
lights at Port Huron.
The electric power for the switch lights goes from the commercial power
line to a "stack" on a former yard office building. The "stack" was installed
by signal forces about 1941. Signal forces connected leads on the wires near
the "stack," put the circuit through a Square "D" box that is locked with a
signal lock, then ran a parkway cable from the Square "D" box to the switch
lights. A brief sketch of the layout is attached hereto as Brotherhood's
Exhibit No. 1.
A storm damaged the power line at Port Huron on June 10, 1963, with the
power for the switch lights going off about 6 P. M. Instead of calling Claimants
using a company-owned generator (and company employes) as had been done
in the past, the Carrier arranged for a contractor to come onto railroad
property with a generator. The contractor's employes, who hold no seniority
or other rights under the Signalmen's Agreement, disconnected the wires from
for the claim is that a contractor allegedly was permitted to set up
a generator to furnish electrical power for the swtich lamps at Port
Huron.
On June 7, 1963, the Equipment Department at Port Huron was
notified that a fire in the swamp had burned off one of our poles
carrying 4,800 volt 3 phase power to Tappan. Before this pole could
be replaced, a very heavy windstorm hit the area on Sunday, June 9,
and 5 poles which were weakened by the 1 pole that was burned,
blew over adjacent to the yard office and into the swampy area. The
Carrier then arranged with the Turner Electric Company of Port
Huron to replace this line, with the GTW supplying poles from Port
Huron Shop. The Turner Electric Company temporarily furnished a
portable generator and furnished us with emergency power during
the time that they were working on the new line construction.
Information furnished me indicates that the generator was
installed ahead of the Service Switch at the Old Yard Office. The
generator substituted for the power lines that were blown down by
the storm and furnished electrical power to the Service Switch at
the distribution box. I fail to see where the installation of the
generator in this case was any violation of your Working Agreement.
In view of the foregoing, the instant claim is declined.
Yours very truly,
/s/ H. A. Sanders"
The claim has been handled up to the Vice President and General Manager,
the chief operating officer designated to handle such disputes and had been
declined by him.
Copies of the current Working Agreement with the Brotherhood of Rail.
road Signalmen of America effective March 16, 1945 are on file with the
Third Division.
OPINION OF BOARD:
The facts of record reveals that a storm downed
main power lines, affecting, among other things, electrically lighted switch
lamps maintained by the Claimants. A contractor, who was engaged to repair
the main power lines, supplied Carrier with emergency power, through use
of a portable generator, for the electric switch lamps, an employe of the
contractor connecting the generator and manning it while in use. The Employes contend that Claimants should have been used to connect the generator
in the line for the electric switch lamps and otherwise man the generator so
long as it was used to supply power.
We find it to be Carrier's prerogative to obtain electric power from and
by whatever source it deems necessary and to that extent the claim will be
denied. However, we also find that Claimants' work in connection with the
electric switch lamps began at the point, at the yard office, where the line
exclusively serving the electric switch lamps begins. Accordingly, it is our
view that Claimants should have been used to connect the line for the electric
switch lamps to the generator and the claim will be sustained for a call for
each Claimant on June 10, 1963.
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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 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.
AWARD
Claim sustained in accordance with the Opinion.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of THIRD DIVISION
ATTEST: S. H. Schulty
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of July 1967.
Keenan Printing Co., Chicago, 111. Printed in U.SA.
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