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