Opinion ID: 526734
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Agency's Position

Text: 25 In its decisions in these cases, the ICC asserted that it has the power, which devolves upon an arbitration committee convened under Sec. 4 of the New York Dock conditions, to relieve a party to a Sec. 11343 transaction from any provision of a CBA or of the RLA that stands in the way of implementing that transaction. Its rationale for this assertion was less than clear, however, due largely to its failure to analyze separately the statutory provisions upon which it relied and their relation to the specific rights it purported to abrogate.
26 The ICC appears to have relied upon two bases for its claim that it may abrogate the provisions of a CBA. First, it cited the immunity provision, Sec. 11341(a), stating that it empowered an arbitrator appointed under the New York Dock conditions to override existing agreements by requiring the work and employees to be moved.... Carmen, Joint Appendix (J.A.) 204; id. at 207 (Committee correctly understood ICC's view to be that Sec. 11341(a) overcomes all legal obstacles preventing implementation of an approved Sec. 11343 transaction); accord Dispatchers, J.A. 290-91. As both Committees noted, the ICC had come to this position only recently, in Denver and Rio Grande Western R.R. Co.--Trackage Rights--Missouri Pacific R.R. Co., Finance Docket 30,000, served Oct. 25, 1983 (DRGW ), rev'd sub nom. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. ICC, 761 F.2d 714 (D.C.Cir.1985), rev'd on other grounds, 482 U.S. 270, 107 S.Ct. 2360, 96 L.Ed.2d 222 (1987). Cf. Southern Ry. Co.--Control--Central of Georgia Ry. Co., 331 I.C.C. 151, 170 (1967) (immunity provision does not relieve carrier from CBA limitation on transfer of employees). 27 In The Carmen's Case, the ICC appeared also to rely upon Sec. 4 of the New York Dock conditions, which it read as supporting the Committee's ruling that it had the absolute authority ... to effect changes in work and employee assignments, notwithstanding any CBA provision to the contrary. J.A. 207. 28 The ICC renews each of these theories on appeal.
29 The ICC also appears to have advanced two sources for its power to override the RLA. First, it stated that the immunity provision exempts the parties to an approved Sec. 11343 transaction from any RLA procedure that might impede the effectuation of the transaction. Carmen, J.A. 204-05, 207 (recounting, and apparently approving, the Committee's conclusion that, under the immunity provisions of [Sec.] 11341(a), implementation of transactions that we authorize under [Sec.] 11343, such as CSX Control, supersede employee protections under the RLA); accord Dispatchers, J.A. 290. The ICC had reached similar conclusions in DRGW, supra, and in Union Pacific Corp., Union Pacific R.R. Co. and Missouri Pacific R.R. Co.--Control--Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. Co., et al., 4 I.C.C.2d 409, 514 (1988), a petition for review of which is currently pending before this court, see Railway Labor Executives Ass'n v. ICC, No. 88-1391 (argued April 28, 1989). 30 Second, the ICC stated that [t]he mandatory arbitration provisions of New York Dock take precedence over the RLA dispute resolution procedures in transactions approved by this Commission.... Dispatchers J.A. 289; accord Carmen, J.A. 204. As we read it, the ICC's position was that when Congress enacted the current version of Sec. 11347, which incorporates by reference a set of dispute resolution procedures culminating in mandatory arbitration, it intended those procedures to be exclusive where they applied. Although it nowhere expressly abandons this theory, the ICC does not argue it in this court; it relies solely upon its Sec. 11341(a) theory.