(Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, ( Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE: (Chicago Union Station Company

1. Carrier violated the effective Clerks' Agreement when, effective September 27, 1983, it abolished a position of Telephone Operator-Information Clerk and thereafter required and/or permitted outsiders not covered by the Agreement to perform work reserved to employes covered thereby.

 2. Carrier shall now compensate Clerk Harry Kusek for eight (8) hours' pay at the time and one-half rate of his position of Telephone Operator-Information Clerk for September 27, 1983, and for each and every day thereafter that a like violation occurs."

 OPINION OF BOARD: The Carrier (CUS) operates the Chicago Amtrak Terminal. It
 also serves as a commuter terminal for Illinois Regional
 Transit Authority (RTA) trains operating over tracks of the BN, Milwaukee, and
 ICG Railroads. CUS does not actually operate any trains and owns no rolling
 stock. On September 26, 1983, CUS changed the open hours of its telephone
 switchboards from two shifts per day to one shift. For forty years, the
 switchboard was in operation from 6:30 A.M. to 11:30 P.M. It would now be
 open from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Callers dialing the CUS switchboard between
 6:30 A.M. and 8:00 A.M. and between 5:00 P.M. and 11:30 P.M. were directed by
 recorded message to call the RTA if they were seeking commuter train informa
 tion. This same message had been played to callers between the hours of 11:30
 P.M. and 6:30 A.M for the preceding ten or twelve years.

 The Organization contends the change resulted in removal of work from coverage of its Agreement in violation of Rules 1 and 18(f). It argues that Rule 1 reserves such work to employes assigned under the Agreement. Rule 18 states:

The Organization contends this Rule requires that work of the abolished switchboard operator position be assigned to other positions under the Agreement.
                        Docket Number CL-26181


The Carrier argues the principle purpose for having switchboard operators' jobs was to handle Carrier's main business telephone. Because of declines in business and employees, keeping the board open sixteen hours per day could no longer be justified.

 The organization has submitted a number of Awards that hold that it is necessary when positions are abolished to reassign any remaining duties to others under the Agreement. It has also submitted statements from a number of employes indicating that at times, when working the switchboard, as much as ninety percent of their work was answering inquiries connected with commuter train operations. However, what is notably absent in this record is evidence on the nature and amount of "remaining work," if any, that existed after the abolishment which was now assigned to others outside the Agreement.

 It seems the crux of the Organization's case concerns telephone inquiries which may be received between 6:30 A.M. and 8:00 A.M. and between 5:00 P.M. and 11:30 P.M. which are now referred to RTA. For the past ten or twelve years, telephone inquiries on commuter service was available from RTA twenty-four hours a day. It was available when the CUS board was open and it was available when the CUS board was closed. In fact, when the CUS switchboard was closed, a recorde directing callers to the RTA. Now that the CUS board is open just nine hours per day, the message directs callers to RTA phones fifteen hours a day. Furthermore, the record does not establish the volume of calls or work involved.

 On this record, it is our opinion the Organization has not established a violation of the Agreem
        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 not violated.

                        Award Number 26506 Page 3

                        Docket Number CL-26181

                        A W A R D


        Claim denied.


                            NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                            By Order of Third Division


Attest;
        Nancy Nancy J ~O,fer - Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 9th day of September 1987.