Rupert,
I will preface this post with the
statement I worked on both sides of
the RR and do not wish to start a
debate over the righteous of
arbitrairies. There were
"sharpshooters" on both sides of the
table when it came to
arbitraries/work rules.
Recall my post of a few days ago
discussing the 1888 strike and the
conditions crews worked under. As
time went on the operating unions
and carrier mgmts negotiated work
agreements that were codified in
what was commonly called the
"schedule." Each craft had a work
agreement book. In these books were
numbered rules specifying what
additional pay would be allowed to a
crew when certain events happened.
These would be over and above the
mileage run or hours worked. They
were designed to protect craft lines
and give mgmt an incentive to
increase employment. These books are
routinely available on ebay and at
our meets.
The best way I can describe the
purpose is to say what my general
contractor told me when he built my
house. "I can do anything you want
me to do as long as you understand
it will cost you." That's the
quickest, easiest way to describe an
arbitrary.
Keep in mind that men came to
work for the RR to make a living,
not watch trains. So when their work
day was lengthened or additional
duties added on they expected to be
paid for the extra work or time
spent on the property. Road crews in
particular were paid by the mile so
the quicker one covered miles the
more he made. Sitting around was
money lost,so many of the
arbitraries for road crews focused
on incenting mgmt to use crews
efficiently.
There have been sides drawn for
decades over whether the arbitraries
were abuse of union power or whether
they worked to offset mgmt abuse of
the crews. To my knowledge the
arbitraries as they used to be known
are long gone.
For the day in question two of
the arbitraries that were filed were
"runarounds". That is two crews
ordered behind our crew that day
were used on trains that left the
terminal before we did. That meant
that our crew was now "farther out"
or deeper on the waiting list to go
back to work in the future.
The rule,arbitrary,penalty was in
place to incent mgmt to use crews
in order.
A straight forward example of a
yard crews arbitrary would be "air
pay" for coupling air hoses on cuts
of cars. This work was the
responsibility of the carmen of the
mechanical dept so when a yard
master had a switch crew couple up
air hoses there was a small penalty.
Another simple yard arbitrary was
the penalty lunch period for not
being allowed to stop work to eat
w/in a specified period of starting
the shift.
Arbitrairies were submitted on
timeslips but were not automatically
paid as mgmt could take
exception,turn down the claim and
then a entire procedure was in place
to resolve the claim. Resolution was
one of the main duties of the local
chairman of the lodge, who was also
a full time RR employee.
Hope this helps w/o starting a
tempest.
Leo Phillipp