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.
During the weeks of April 24 and May 8, 2000, a Welder and a Welder Helper from System Curve Rail Gang 9023 were assigned to weld joints on the Albert Lea Subdivision between MP 242 and MP 252 between Gordon and Albert Lea, Minnesota. On May 8, 2000, the Welder and Welder Helper were assisted by a Welder ffrom System Curve Rail Gang 9009. Neither System Gang 9023 nor System Gang 9009 was working in this area at the time.
On May 25, 2000, the Organization filed a claim on behalf of two District Welders and a District Welder Helper who were assigned to Seniority District T-2. The Claimants were headquartered at Albert Lea on former Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (C&NW) property. It is the Organization's position that welding these joints was regular maintenance work that should have been assigned to the District Welders and Welder Helpers on Seniority District T-2 rather than to System Gang Welders and a Welder Helper who had no seniority on District T-2.
The Carrier denied the claim contending that the negotiated Implementing Agreement effective January 1, 1998,, gave System Gang Welders the right to work on former C&NW property. The System Gang Welders were performing production work left over from 1999, according to the Carrier, because System Gang 9009 did not have Welders assigned in 1999. Moreover, the Carrier maintains that the Claimants did not have the exclusive right to weld joints on their seniority district.
The central issue before the Board is whether the work of welding joints in 2000 that had been left behind by System Gang 9009 in 1999 could be assigned to System Gang Welders or whether District Welders had the exclusive right to this work. We find that the Carrier had the right to assign this work of welding joints to System Gang Welders. Form I Award No. 37847
Initially, there is no question that the Implementing Agreement effective January 1, 1998, extended the seniority territory of all the Carrier's System Gangs to the former C&NW. Indeed, the Organization does not seem to take any exception to this. However, the Organization contends that System Gang employees may only perform work related to their own System Gang. We disagree.
The Organization did not cite any Rule or practice restricting System Gang employees to work on their individual System Gang. In our opinion, System Gang employees may perform any System work. Therefore, when Welders from System Gang 9023 and System Gang 9009 welded joints in 2000 that had been left behind by System Gang 9009 in 1999, this was entirely permissible.
The Organization has not referenced any Rule, Agreement or practice reserving the welding in question exclusively to District Welders on Seniority District T-2. That the district employees also welded joints left behind by System Gang 9009 did not give them the exclusive right to complete this work.
For all these reasons, the Board finds that the June 1, 1985 Agreement was not violated when the Claimants were not assigned to weld joints that had been left behind by System Gang 9009 the previous year. The claim is denied as a result.
This Board, after consideration of the dispute identified above, hereby orders that an Award favorable to the Claimant(s) not be made.