(Marion E. Hampton
 PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
 (Southern Railway Company

 STATEMENT OF CLAIM: Claim of Machine Operator, Marion E. Hampton for pay
 for all time lost on his assignment and/or assignments
 for all days he has been or is held out of service, be paid the same compen
 sation that he would have earned had he worked, and request that he be re
 instated to the service with full seniority rights including vacation
 rights and request this division to so rule, reinstating your claimant with
 all rights as requested and compensated for all time lost on the Southern
 Railway System, from December 20, 1972 and all subsequents dates account
 of wrongful and arbitrary discharge in an invalid proceeding held in the
 Holiday Inn Motel, Jasper, Indiana 7:00 P.M., on January 9, 1973.

 OPINION OF BOARD: Section 2 Second of the Railway Labor Act provides that
 all disputes must be considered, and if possible re
 solved, in conference between the parties on the property. Such a confer
 ence is an essential condition precedent to any case being referred to this
 Board. The purpose of this section of the Act is to encourage settlement
 of disputes between the parties, rather than the routine referral of dis
 putes to the Board.

 The record of this case indicates that no conference relative to this claim was held on the property prior to its submission to this Board. For this reason we cannot consider the merits of this dispute and have no alternative but to dismiss the Claim based on the serious procedural flaw.



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;









ATTEST:
        Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 30th day of December 1974,