Family members picket Mat Rose and Dave Dealy
at Town hall meeting at Vancouver WA.

   About 25 people stood outside with pickets where Mat Rose was to speak to employees. Family members are outraged with the BNSF over the quality of life on the BNSF.The picketing family members had a chance to tell their story to local newspaper and television people.

    Inside the town hall meeting it is astounding that Dave Dealy would be so arrogant to tell the employees that the BNSF has no obligation to maintain extraboards to provide for reasonable lay-off as specified in the Availability Policy. In Dave Dealy's words the BNSF does not have to comply with their own policy.

I can only quote neutral Kasher in his decision

 Accordingly, this Board will neither make a ruling nor issue a finding regarding the reasonableness of the Policy.

However, the Board will observe, by way of dicta, that certain provisions of the Policy have the flavor of unreasonableness.

Just one example can be found in the Policy Administration Section. In this Section of the Policy there is a requirement that after a first violation of the Policy, which is to result in a counseling session with the Superintendent or his/her designee, an employee must maintain a clean record for three years in order to avoid more severe treatment under the BNSF's progressive disciplinary system.

The Chairman of this Board, who has had the opportunity to consider the reasonableness of many policies of this type, is not familiar with any that require such a protracted cleansing period.

In any event, as observed above, the issue of whether the Policy is unreasonable is not ripe for consideration on its merits.

Conclusion

Although the Board has concluded that the BNSF has the right to promulgate and implement a policy that governs employees' availability/absenteeism, it is clear, in the Board'.s opinion, that the implementation of the Availability Policy may, unfortunately, have a long-term negative impact upon the parties' relationship.

The NCCC and the UTU and the BLE worked diligently to find common ground to achieve two equally important objectives. The operational requirement to timely meet the Carrier's business goals balanced against the need to ensure that employees receive adequate rest in order to avoid fatigue.

It is also clear that the BNSF expended minimal effort to work with responsible Organization representatives to fashion an arrangement which would satisfy both of these critical needs.