THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410210682
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
The United Transportation Union has sued Norfolk & Western Railway Co. in federal court over the status of displaced train workers in the railroad's Norfolk Terminal.
The suit asks the U.S. District Court in Norfolk to enforce a year-old arbitration agreement between the union and the railroad and award back pay to the affected employees.
The dispute concerns how certain senior employees can be reassigned when their positions are eliminated.
The United Transportation Union Local 48 represents about 100 conductors and brake operators at the Norfolk Terminal, which is the train yard next to the Pier 6 coal terminal.
Norfolk & Western Railway is a subsidiary of Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern Corp., which owns the railroad and the coal terminal.
The workers, known as protected employees, say the railroad is placing them in a status they call ``limbo'' when they are not needed, said the union's attorney Norton N. Newborn of Cleveland, Ohio.
Those workers do not work and are not paid, he said.
Protected workers are those whose employment predates the union's contract with the railroad.
The railroad has received no notice that it's not complying with the arbitration agreement with the union, said Robin C. Chapman, a railroad spokesman. ``We have been willing to sit down and talk with them,'' he said.
The railroad declined to comment further.
The union says displaced protected workers are entitled to be placed on a reserve status in which they don't work, but receive a portion of their pay and may be recalled based on seniority. They may also be placed on an extra list to fill in for other workers who are sick or on vacation.
The railroad apparently thinks it can offer displaced workers jobs in open positions elsewhere at the terminal under the terms of its agreement with the union. But the union believes its members won't be protected by their seniority in those positions.
Unwilling to give up their seniority, the workers find themselves without work or pay.
``They're not on furlough, they're not on any assignment, not on any extra list, they're in limbo without pay,'' Newborn said.
An arbitration agreement dated Aug. 31, 1993, says the railroad cannot leave protected workers in limbo.
Newborn said that there are back-pay claims amounting to about $90,000 stemming from the railroad's use of limbo.
The railroad may also furlough the employees, but it has to give 30 days notice to recall them from a furlough, Newborn said. ``They don't want to furlough them because they can't call them back at the drop of a hat,'' he said. by CNB