Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION
Award No. 37914
Docket No. SG-37533
06-3-02-3-578
The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in addition Referee
Elizabeth C. Wesman when award was rendered.
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
(Union Pacific Railroad Company
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"Claim on behalf of the General committee of the Brotherhood of
Railroad Signalmen on the Union Pacific (UP):
Claim on behalf of D. H. Morgan and J. T. Windschit4 for 248 hours
straight time and 212.5 hours at time and one-half of the Signal
Maintainer's rate of pay, account Carrier violated the current
Signalmen's Agreement, particularly the Scope Rule, when it
allowed outside contractors to remove brush and trees from under
the pole line between MP 25 and MP 48.1 on the Altoona
Subdivision, and deprived the Claimants of the opportunity to
perform this work. Carrier's File No. 1281607. General
Chairman's File No. Nscope-219. BRS File Case No. 12273-UP."
FINDINGS:
The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the
evidence, fords 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. 37914
Page 2 Docket No. SG-37533
06-3-02-3-578
Parties to said dispute were given due notice of hearing thereon.
On August 21, 2001, the Organization filed the above-referenced claim. The
stated basis for the claim was the Carrier's alleged assignment of the removal of
brush and . trees from a section of the Carrier's signal pole line on its Altoona
Subdivision.
The Carrier denied the claim by letter of October 15, 2001. It maintained
that there was no Scope Rule in the Agreement reserving the work at issue to
Signalmen. In its October 29, 2001 appeal, the Organization quoted the first
paragraph and Section 2 of the Scope Rule, which read as follows:
"This- agreement governs the rate of pay, hours of service and
working conditions of employees in the Signal Department, who
construct, install, test, inspect, maintain or repair the following:
2. High tension or other lines of the Signal Department, overhead
or underground, poles and fixtures, conduits, transformers,
arrestors and distributing blocks, track bonding, wires or
cables, pertaining to railroad signaling, interlocking, and other
systems and devices listed in (1) above."
The Organization further noted that it was Signalmen who found brush and
tree limbs touching open pole wires and, accordingly, it was not proper for the
Carrier to then contract out that work when it was cited for the infraction by the
FRA.
Despite the Organization's protestation to the contrary, there is nothing in
either the Scope Rule, or in the historical past practice between the parties to
suggest that brush removal (even if leaning up against what are apparently signal
lines) is reserved exclusively to Signalmen. In its December 17, 2001 denial of the
Organization's appeal, the Carrier asserted that brush cutting on the property had
been done by Maintenance of Way forces and outside contractors. Nothing in the
record contradicts the Carrier's position on this point.
Form 1 Award No. 37914
Page 3 Docket No. SG-37533
06-3-02-3-578
In light of the foregoing, the Board has no choice but to deny the claim.
AWARD
Claim denied.
ORDER
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 22nd day of August 2006.