Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 36054
Docket No. MW-33283
02-3-96-3-769

The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee Gerald E. Wallin when award was rendered.

(Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE: (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (former Fort ( Worth and Denver Railway Company)

STATEMENT OF CLAIM:









FINDINGS:

The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds that:

The carrier or carriers and the employee or employees involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employee within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934.

This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.


Form 1 Award No. 36054
Page 2 Docket No. MW-33283


The parties have diametrically opposing assertions about the focus of this claim. The Organization and the Claimant contend that P. Ramirez exhausted his displacement rights when he bumped and actually filled the Foreman position on August 4,1995 that was held by Foreman Roach on the Amarillo Spot Patrol Gang. As a result, Ramirez was not legally entitled to bump the Claimant's position at Plainview on August 7,1995. The Carrier, on the other hand, maintains that Ramirez canceled his plans to bump Roach and did not actually work in Roach's position - instead, Ramirez filled a vacant position on August 4, 1995 and Roach worked his own position and was not bumped. As a result, Ramirez did not exhaust his entitlement to exercise seniority and was legal to bump the Claimant at Plainview on August 7, 1995.


When the Carrier refuted the Organization's assertions, the Organization was required to support its contentions with probative evidence. It failed to satisfy this burden of proof obligation. Consequently, we must deny the claim.








This Board, after consideration of the dispute identified above, hereby orders that an Award favorable to the Claimant(s) not be made.


                        NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD By Order of Third Division


                        Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 21st day of May, 2002.