Opinion ID: 752139
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History of the dispute over travel expenses

Text: 6 The controversy between the parties turns on two views of the classes of employees that are entitled to have their travel expenses reimbursed. The union takes the broader view--the Agreement encompasses all traveling employees. A traveling employee is one whose work travels and who does not report to a fixed headquarters. An employee who commutes long-distance daily to a particular fixed site does not fit in this group. From what we can glean from the record, there are two kinds of traveling employees: those attached to district gangs, and those associated with regional and system gangs. The district gangs work within just one of the geographical units into which the railroads divide their workers, the seniority districts. Regional and system gangs, on the other hand, may traverse two or more seniority districts in the course of their work. Because the seniority districts can stretch over hundreds of miles, an employee from either a district gang or a regional and system gang may have to work a considerable distance from his or her home. 7 The history of the instant dispute reflects the unique legal setting of labor strife in the rail industry--a setting on which the disposition of this case depends. Railroad maintenance by its very nature demands that workers travel. The union, however, has bitterly opposed the use of regional and system gangs, which tends to impose an extraordinary travel burden on the gang members. The railroads refused to give up the regional and system gangs, and in 1991, the conflict impeded a negotiated agreement. With a strike looming, President Bush invoked the RLA, 45 U.S.C. § 160, to appoint Presidential Emergency Board No. 219 (PEB 219). PEB 219 investigated the discord and rejected the union's proposal to eliminate the regional and system gangs. The union opted to strike, but Congress intervened and imposed PEB 219's recommendations wholesale on the railroads and the union. Pub.L. No. 102-29, 105 Stat. 169 (1991). 8 The 1991 agreement allowed for re-opening negotiations in November 1994. The issue of regional and system gangs got the limelight again as the union once more sought to cut them back. The contentious issue stalled agreement a second time. President Clinton appointed Presidential Emergency Board 229 (PEB 229), which issued its report on June 23, 1996 (PEB 229 Rep.). Perhaps spurred by the memory of Congress' intervention in 1991, this time the railroads and the union averted a strike. With regard to travel expenses (the issue before us), the union and the railroads could not agree on implementing language. They chose instead to copy verbatim the pertinent recommendation of PEB 229 as Article XIV (Travel Allowance) of the Agreement.