International Association of MacHinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge 19 v. Southern Pacific Transportation Company

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Lodge #19, appeals from the district court’s refusal to enforce four awards of the National Railroad Adjustment Board and to make the awards applicable to employees situated similarly to the named claimant employees. Because the board did not exceed its jurisdiction in making the awards, we reverse.

The union and Southern Pacific Transportation Company entered a collective bargaining agreement which provided that some traveling motorcar mechanics be paid on a monthly basis rather than the usual hourly basis. A dispute arose between the union and Southern Pacific over the method and rate of calculating the compensation for monthly-rated motorcar mechanics who work in excess of 175% hours in a given month. The parties were unable to resolve the dispute, and the union submitted to the board four claims on behalf of four mechanics. The board ruled in favor of the compensation scheme advocated by the union, a standard time-and-a-half rate for any time worked in excess of 175% hours in a single month. The board held that Southern Pacific’s fluctuating scale should be discontinued.

Southern Pacific paid the four claims…