Best Practices: Chairman's Opening Statement
"Good Morning, my
name is Barry Simon. Let me explain what we
are going to be doing today.
"This is a Public Law
Board established by agreement between the [Carrier]
and the [Organization] pursuant to the Railway Labor
Act. There are three members of this Board.
[Carrier Member] is the Carrier Member of the Board
and [Organization Member] is the Organization
Member. Together they have selected me to be
the third Member and Chairman of the Board.
"I have no
affiliation with the [Carrier] or any other
railroad, or with the [Organization] or any other
union. My service on this Board is compensated
by the National Mediation Board, a federal agency,
so I am the neutral member. It takes two
members of the Board to make any decisions.
"The procedures we
are going to be following are the same as any other
arbitration board in the railroad industry all over
the country. Inasmuch as this is a discipline
case, the Carrier has the burden of proof and will
go first in making its arguments. The
Organization will then make its arguments on your
behalf, and there will be an opportunity for
rebuttal arguments. One basic rule that we
operate under is that this is an appellate process.
I am not here to take evidence or hear testimony
I have received and reviewed copies of all
correspondence between the parties during the
handling of the claim on the property, as well as
the transcript of your investigation. That is
the record before me. Under the provisions of
the agreement establishing the Board and the Railway
Labor Act, the parties are prohibited from making
arguments or introducing evidence that have not
already been handled on the property. If one
side were to make a new argument, I would expect the
other side to object. If I determine that is a
new argument, I will not consider it.
"At the conclusion of
the parties' arguments, I will give you an
opportunity to make a statement in your own behalf,
and will give you some time before that to meet with
your representatives in the hall. When you
come back, the floor is yours. You may say
whatever you want, but bear in mind that when I get
back to my office the only thing I may consider is
this record.
"I will then prepare
a proposed award which I will send to the other two
members of the Board for their adoption. I
wish I could give you some idea when the award will
be issued, but that is subject to government
funding, and right now the Congress has not passed
an appropriations bill for the current year.
You will, however, be notified by your Union
representatives when the award is adopted.
"Do you have any
questions before we begin?"
-Barry Simon,
January 17, 2007
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