Award No. 17923 Docket No. CL-18328
BROTHERHOOD OF RAILWAY, AIRLINE & STEAMSHIP
CLERKS, FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS &
STATION EMPLOYES
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood (GL-6619) that:
1. The work of rating, revising, billing, cashier and accounting work in connection with outbound LTL freight and outbound LCL freight business for Baytown, Texas, is work which has always been assigned to employes working and holding seniority rights in Seniority District No. 27 at Baytown, Texas.
2. Effective May 1, 1967, all clerical work mentioned in paragraph above was transferred to Carrier's Settegast Freight Station, Houston, Texas, and such work was assigned to positions and employes in Seniority District No. 5.
3. Carrier's Settegast Freight Station, Houston, Texas, is approximately 30 railroad miles west of Baytown, Texas, and is an agency of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. The freight station clerical employes at the Houston Agency hold positions and seniority only in Seniority District No. 5.
Pacific Railroad's Seniority District No. 5 whereas those in Baytown were in Missouri Pacific Railroad's Seniority District No. 27.
8. Claim was handled in the usual manner, and in letter of August 6, 1968, Carrier's Exhibit "A," was finally appealed to the Director of Labor Relations, who denied the claim in letter of September 5, 1968, as follows:
9. The dispute was considered in conference on September "5, 1968, and confirmed with letter reading in pertinent part:
OPINION OF BOARD: The claim herein arose in connection with the performance by Carrier employes of certain clerical work for the Missouri Pacific Track Lines, Inc.
The Missouri Pacific Truck Lines is a motor freight Carrier and a separate corporate entity operating under authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and various state commissions. There is no collective bargaining agreement between the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines and the petitioning Organization. There is, however, a Memorandum Agreement between the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, Texas and Pacific Railway Company, Missouri Pacific Truck Lines, Inc., and Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company and the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees, which reads:
"MEMORANDUM AGREEMENT
BETWEEN
MISSOURI PACIFIC TRUCK LINES, INC.
TEXAS AND PACIFIC MOTOR TRANSPORT COMPANY
(MOTOR CARRIERS)
BRO'THERHOO'D OF RAILWAY AND STEAMSHIP CLERKS,
FREIGHT HANDLERS, EXPRESS AND STATION EMPLOYEES
(ORGANIZATION)
1. Missouri Pacific Truck Lines, Inc., and/or Texas and Pacific Motor Transport Company clerical work, such as rating, billing, handling of claims and revenue accounting on freight moving on motor transport tariff rates which is not performed by clerks employed by the RailCarriers parties to this Agreement will continue to be performed by such rail clerks the same as at present.
2. It is understood and agreed that the clerical employees represented by Organization are employees of Rail Carriers, not of Motor Carriers, and nothing contained herein shall be construed to create any employer-employee relationship between clerical employees and Motor Carriers.
The claim is that the Carrier (Missouri Pacific Railroad Company) violated its Agreement covering its clerical and station employes when, beginning May 1, 1967, it removed work from Baytown, Texas, Seniority District No. 27, and transferred such work to Settegast Freight Station, Houston, Texas, where the work was performed by clerical employes in Seniority District No. 5.
The record shows that Humble Oil Company maintains a business located three or four miles from the Missouri Pacific Railroad freight office in Baytown, Texas, and ships trailer loads and less than trailer loads of freight via the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines. To handle this business, the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines dispatches a driver from Houston over the highway to Humble Oil Company in Baytown, where he picks up the trailer and returns to Houston via highway. Prior to the dispute involved herein, the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines routed its driver from Humble Oil Company to the railroad freight office in Baytown, where the Missouri Pacific Railroad clerks performed the work of rating, routing and billing the shipment, and then drove to Houston. To expedite the handling, the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines discontinued routing the driver from the Humble Oil Company to the railroad freight office in Baytown, but had the driver go directly to Humble Oil Company, pick up the trailer and return via highway direct to Houston, where Missouri Pacific Railroad clerks performed the work of rating, routing and billing for the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines. The over-the-highway equipment necessary to handle the shipment was within the exclusive control and jurisdiction of the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines from Houston to Baytown and return.
As heretofore indicated, the claim allgees a violation of the Agreement because the Missouri Pacific Railroad clerks who performed the rating, routing and billing for the Missouri Pacific Truck Lines at Houston were in Seniority District 5, while those in Baytown were in Seniority District No. 27.
It is well settled that Carrier management is free to determine the way in which the work and operations are to be performed and conducted in the interest of efficiency and economy except insofar as that freedom may be limited by law or agreements. (Awards 12991, 12419, 11776.) With this principle in mind we must carefully consider the Memorandum Agreement of February 1, 1967, heretofore quoted. By that agreement the Missouri Pacific Railroad contracted with the Clerks to permit them to perform certain work for the Truck Lines. The February 1, 1967, Agreement contains no restriction as to the location where such work will be performed, and this
Board cannot read such a restriction into the Agreement. The Missouri Pacific Truck Lines has the prerogative of determining where the work is to be performed. The Missouri Pacific Railroad met its obligation under the Agreement by permitting its rail clerks, even though located at Houston, Texas, to perform the work. We find, therefore, that the Agreement was not violated.
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 Lahor Act, as approved June 21, 1934;
That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein; and