On BNSF, it has become commonplace for monthly rated maintainers to exchange weekend protection.  When doing so, one maintainer (referred to in Rule 45I as “District A”) covers the protect day of his protect partner (“District B”) as well as his own protect day, for a given weekend.  This is then reciprocated by the maintainer for “District B” the following weekend.  This provision is what provides for the weekend rotations many of our monthly rated maintainers observe.  However, there are some common misconceptions involving Rule 45I as it pertains to weekend protection which should be dispelled of.  First and foremost, it is not uncommon for supervision to issue threats of forcing their workgroups to abandon the weekend exchange and “cover their own protect days.”  Be advised, supervision has no say in the matter, with one exception.  The only time the Carrier can require maintainers to “protect according to the regular schedule,” is during extreme adverse weather conditions.  Simply put, unless a tornado, hurricane, wildfire, or other natural disaster is imminent, the Carrier has no say in this arrangement. 

Per Rule 45I, the protect days for Districts A and B are to rotate between Saturday and Sunday every two months throughout the year.  For example, while District A has a protect day of Saturday for Jan/Feb, District B would have a protect day on Sunday for the same time period.  This arrangement would then rotate for Mar/Apr and likewise for the remainder of the year.  Local management is required to post this schedule every year. 

At any given time, a maintainer has the right to no longer exchange weekend protection with his/her protect partner.  They can immediately revert to covering their own protect day only.  Contrary to what seems to be the mindset of some, there is no contract, implied or otherwise, that a maintainer must continue to exchange weekends for a certain period of time upon initially agreeing to do so.  For example, he/she can agree to exchange weekends during the winter, discontinue the practice beginning with their vacation in the spring, resume exchanges again through the summer, discontinue the practice for the fall holiday season and so forth.  Again, the two maintainers have the sole discretion of exchanging weekends when it is mutually beneficial and reverting to the regular schedule of one protect day each weekend when/if exchanging is no longer desirable to either maintainer.

Do not be intimidated into thinking you must exchange weekends or that this right can be taken away from you on a supervisor’s whim.  Neither is true.