Special Board of Adjustment No. 1016
PARTIES TO DISPUTE:
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way
Employees
and
Consolidated Rail Corporation
STATEMENT OF CLAIM:
"(1) The Agreement was violated when Carrier assigned
outside forces (Massilon Plumbing Inc.) to
perform plumbihg work at the new Trail Van
Intermodal Facility at Buckeye Yard, Columbus, Ohio
from November 21, 1985 through January 3, 1986
(System Dockets CR-2445, CR-2446, CR-2447, CR-2448
and CR-2449).
(2) As a consequence of the aforesaid violation, B&B
Plumbers J. W. Zink, W. A. Smith and I.W. Smith
shall each be allowed two hundred (200) hours of
pay at their respective straight time rates."
FINDINGS:
This is another case involving Carrier's use of an
outside forum to perform work that, according to Petitioner,
belonged to carrier's Maintenance of Way forces. Each of the
cases concerns a different portion of the work involved in
the project. In the present case, plumbing work is involved
while in Award 28, the lead case, building construction was
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the work in question. Award No. 29 dealt with hauling and
unloading, tamping up and grading roadbed.
That the project was of major dimensions is quite clear.
It was required in order to replace Carrier facilities at
East Columbus, Ohio, that were being displaced by a new
interstate highway. The overall cost of the project, which
was paid for by the State of Ohio, amounted to $13.5 million
dollars.
It is well settled that a carrier will not be compelled
to subdivide a major project in order to give portions that
may be relatively small to employees of the carrier. In the
interests of efficiency, timing and work coordination, that
principle is not unreasonable. In carrying out a project,
building contractors frequently have to use subcontractors to
perform some of the skilled work involved and it is not
helpful to the claim that in this instance, the plumbing work
was performed by Massilon Plumbing, Inc.; that work was an
essential element of the entire project.
In all these cases involving the East Columbus project,
Petitioner's main thrust had been that Carrier failed to give
the Organization the prescribed written notice of the project
and to explore the matter in good faith with the organization
before committing itself to farm out the work to the outside
firm. This Board found no merit in these contentions in
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Awards 28 and 29 and perceives no valid ground for reaching a
different decision in this case. Nor will we depart from the
accepted principles and hold that Carrier should have split
up the project in order to assign the plumbing work,
totalling some 200 hours, to its own employees.
This is not to say that this Board is in accord with
Carrier's view that no damages are due in this in any event
in view of the absence of a penalty provision in the
Agreement and the fact that none of Carrier's plumbers were
on furlough. The Board would have awarded damages if it had
been persuaded that Carrier had wrongfully contracted out
work to an outside firm. It believes that Carrier's
reasoning to the contrary and that of the awards it cites are
in error. Contracting out, when improper, is an extremely
serious offense that goes to the very essence of the
collective bargaining agreement.
AWARD: Claim denied.
Adopted at Philadelphia, PA. ar$- , 1989
U
HaxQTd-Weston, chairman
arrier Me a Employee Member
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