Opinion ID: 500031
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Tucumcari Case

Text: 33 Shortly after the matter was submitted to arbitration, but several months before the arbitrator rendered a decision, a relevant internal dispute was being resolved within the UTU. In UTU Board of Appeals Case No. 64, File 8-8-54 (March 11, 1983) (Tucumcari ) (see 2 Joint Appendix 441), former employees of the Rock Island challenged an implementing agreement quite similar to those involved in the case before us. 34 In Tucumcari, a segment of the former Rock Island railroad called the Tucumcari line had been purchased after a period of interim operation by the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad (SSW) on March 24, 1980. Pursuant to the terms of the March 4th Agreement, a subsequent implementing agreement was reached purporting to establish a seniority scheme for the former Rock Island employees. 35 The implementing agreement was signed by General Chairman R.H. Arnett, on February 23, 1982. Arnett was the representative of the SSW-UTU, the acquiring company's union, and had never represented Rock Island employees. As in the present case, the agreement gave former Rock Island employees seniority dates as of their first day of work for the SSW. 36 Two former Rock Island employees, J.W. Volkman and J.T. Kelso, brought an internal appeal within the UTU. They alleged that the implementing agreement was contrary to the terms of the March 4th Agreement. They argued, inter alia, that the agreement was improper because Arnett represented only employees of the acquiring company and not the Rock Island employees. They also maintained that the March 4th Agreement contemplated greater seniority rights than were provided by the February 23, 1982 implementing agreement. 37 The Board of Appeals held for Volkman and Kelso and, in reforming the terms of implementing agreement, stated that all employee representatives should participate in the negotiation of implementing agreements. Id. at 16. Second, the Board found that the former Rock Island employees were entitled to a seniority date as of the day they were hired by the Rock Island. Specifically, the Board stated: 38 In this case of acquisition, prior rights are of paramount concern. To place a termination date on those prior rights would not only be a travesty of justice but also would contravene the very concepts of seniority and prior rights. Id. at 18. The Board continued: 39 This Board also finds the former employees should be given the seniority dates of their earliest employment date, i.e., the seniority date carried on the Rock Island. Without extensive elaboration, we feel this would not be too hard to accomplish. 40 Id. 41