((Formerly Transportation-Communication Employees Union PARTIES TO DISPUTE:

STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim o:: the General Committee of the Transportation-
 Communication Employees Union on the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, that:

 1. Carrier violated and continues to violate the Agreement between the parties when beginning on or about February 9, 1965, it requires or permits employees, not cover Missouri, to handle (punching, transmitting and receiving) communications.

 2. For each and every eight (8) hour shift that communications are handled at Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri, by persons not under the Telegraphers' Agreement, the Carrier shall pay the equivalent of eight (8) hours' pay at the rate applicable to the position under the Agreement to each of the following telegraphic employees in that U.D. Telegraph Office at Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri:







OPINION OF BOARD: The Organization alleges that Carrier violated the Telegraphers'
 Agreement between the parties when it allowed or required employes not covered by the Agreement, at St. Louis, Missouri, to handle (punching, transmitting and receiving) communications.

 Carrier contends there was no violation of the Agreement and states, in part, as follows:

                    Docket Number TE-16416


            "sending of the interchange information is concerned, as stated above, cards are punched automatically by the computer while printing the interchange reports and these cards are placed in the IBM 1912 machine, a drum card placed thereon, and a couple of buttons pressed to place the machine into sending position. Thereafter actual transmissiun of the data is accomplished at such time as the Pennsylvania elects t receive the data by manipulation of their receiving equipment. Sometime later in the day when the clerk happens to notice that the Pennsylvania has effectuated the transmission, he removes the punched cards from the 1912 machine, replaces the drum card, places a stack of blank cards into the machine and presses a couple of buttons to place the machine in receiving position. The combination of all work performed by the key punch operators in this connection takes only a few minutes a day. None of the material sent or received is kept or used by the Carrier for any record whatever."


                                                      I

These statements suggest that the Pennsylvania Railroad, not the Carrier in this case, really operates the IBM machine which accomplishes the actual transmission of the data recorded on the.automatically produced cards.

 The telegraphers, in this case, rest their claim upon their Scope Rule which reads in part as follows:

            "Printer Operators - (punching, transmitting or receiving)"


The Scope Rule on. which the telegraphers rely was adopted several years prior to the installation of the IBM machine giving rise to the present claim. It is doubtful that such a machine was within the contemplation of the parties at the time such rule was adopted.

 In any event, the Board does not feel that a clerical employee performing the contested work could truly be considered a Printer Operator.

 Carrier argued in its submission that the punching referred to in the Scope Rule probably related to the punching of tape as was and is done by employees who are represented by the Transportation-Communication Employees Union. This contention appears to be a sound one since punching of IBM cards has long been a part of clerical work.

 The record persuades us that the Telegraphers have not met the burden of proving that the disputed work belongs to them and we find no violation of the Agreement.
                    Award Number 19287 Page 3

                    Docket Number TE-16416


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

        That the Agreement was not violated.


                      A WAR D


        Claim denied.


                        NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                        By Order of Third Division


ATTEST: a 441
        Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 22nd day of June 1972.