In the early 1990's when I was hired, we still had three man crews, and I worked as a Brakeman. In 1996 they finally were able to do away with the Brakemen via contract, which created a glut in the Conductor craft. (We were all qualified Conductors, and could take seniority calls as such. But we didn't have enough seniority to hold a Conductor job.) So now we were all full time Conductors, but there where almost twice as many Conductors as Engineers. To solve the problem, the UTU agreed to the creation of a Reserve Board. What this did was find a place to hold excess Conductors until the need arouse for us again. We were placed on the Reserve Board, paid a weekly salary, and told that we could go find another job if we chose to. I was on this Reserve Board for three months, and working at a factory here in Battle Creek, all the while still collecting a weekly check from the railroad. This satisfied the provisions of New York Dock, as well as cutting down on the amount of Conductors on the board. They were aggressively training Engineers at the time, so between Conductors moving up to the Engineer craft, and retirements in the Conductor craft, it didn't take that long to balance out the boards again.
Bill
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