Edward L. Suntrup, Referee


              (Brotherhood Maintenance of Way Employes


PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
              (Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad Company


STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:

 1. The Carrier violated the Agreement when it failed and refused to allow the employe* listed below holiday pay for Labor Day (September 5, 1983) (System File E&LS-24).

 2. The claimants shall each be allowed eight (8) hours of pay at their respective straight time rates because of the violation referred to in Part (1) above.

 *Ahlskig, Carl Gibbons, Stanley Orlando, William
 Alsteen, Tracy Grailer, James Ostrowski, Thomas
 Baille, Patrick Hamm, Gaylord Peak, Steven
 Bauer, Anthony Herlache, Dennis Pieters, Greg
 Bieber, William Hogue, Orlo Pinchart, Tracey
 Borski, Leo Janda, Ronald Pizinski, Vincent
 Brietrick, Scott Jahnke, Donald Pragacz, Stephen
 Brush, Walter Joly, Wayne Regouski, David
 Clancy, Daniel Jose II, David Schultz, Scott
 Collard, Robert Keiler, Richard Schwartz, David
 Collins, Francis Krueger, Kirk Skinkis, Kenneth
 Connaher, Bruce Kubiak, Donald Smith, Gregg
 Deffke, Michael Kubiak, Noel Sodlerberg, Kraig
 Deffle, Thomas Lasley, David Tadisch, Michael
 DeRoush, Robert Last, Roy Tappa, Gerald
 Dettman, Brett Leary, John Taylor, Keith
 Dettman, Bruce Lesinski, Paul Thibault, R.
 Dettman, Douglas Little, Tim Tomazewski
 Ducion, David Maier, Thomas Veldman, Walter
 Erdmann, Wayne Matz, Michael Walinski, R.
 Erickson, Thomas Mevers, Terry Walters, William
 Fleck, Richard Meyer, Mark Wickman, Willis
 Fieck, Robert Monfils, Michael Wood, James
 French, Kenneth Negro, Jon Wroblewski, Ed
 Zemanovic, Mark"

 OPINION OF BOARD: On October 17, 1983, the Organization's Assistant General
 Chairman filed a Claim with the Carrier on the grounds that it had been in violation of the National Agreement when it failed to compensate the Claimants for th
                      Award Number 26516 Page 2

                      Docket Number MW-26235


Crivitz, Wisconsin rehabilitation project and also on the Michigan rehabilitation project. According regularly assigned . . . to their respective positions which were created when forces were increased due to . . . (the) . . . respective rehabilitation projects." The Claim continued that ". . . none of (the claimants) were called back to work or hired to fill a position owned by another employee . . . (and) . . .they received compensation credited to the work days immediately preceding and following September 5, 1983. . .

 When the Claim was denied by the Carrier by correspondence dated December 1, 1983, it did so on the following grounds:

          . . . (w)ork performed by (the Claimants) does not fall into the category of 'regular assignments' on this property. Each (Claimant) was hired as extra employee to augment the regular work force, and worked on an extra gang performing the insertion and various other related tasks in conjunction with the rehabilitation projects on the property. One of these projects has a signed agreement . . . wherein these employees are designed as 'assigned to extra gang service' with a 150 day probationary period . . .


The Carrier is a regional shortline operating in the States of Wisconsin and Michigan with a normal of Way Employes. When the Milwaukee Road abandoned trackage between Green Bay, Wisconsin and Ontogagon, Michigan in 1980, this Carrier began operations on that trackage as a shortline. In June of 1983, the Carrier signed an Agreement with the Organization which covered only the rehabilitation work to be done on part of the former Milwaukee Road tracks in the summer and fall of that year. The Claimants in this case are employees who were hired by the Carrier under that Agreement to perform track roadbed and crossing repairs.

 A study of the language of the Agreement under which these Claimants were hired warrants no other conclusion except that they were not regularly assigned employes as contemplated by the National Agreement. They were "extra gang" employes as the Agreement between the parties signed on July 15, 1983, explicitly states. The employes were hired on a temporary basis for seasonal work and at the completion of the project their positions were to be abolished. The Claim, therefore
        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;

                      Award Number 26516 Page 3

                      Docket Number MW-26235


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 W A R D


        Claim denied.


                            NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                            By Order of Third Division


Attest:

        Nancy J. DPver - Executive Secretary


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