In the past few months, we have received several sustaining Awards from Public Law Boards, in out-of–service discipline cases involving Claimants who were compensated for several months (up to nearly three years) of lost time. Some of those Claimants have now advised us that they have been denied a scheduled vacation for 2001, because the Carrier is attempting to argue that their lost time compensation cannot be counted as qualifying days for vacation qualification purposes. After doing some research, we concluded that although this Carrier has never taken this position in the past, Labor Relations was probably trying to copy-cat a similar argument made by the UP last year. Fortunately, that UP case was recently decided in the Organization’s favor, and we were able to secure a copy of the Award from UP General Chairman Richard Karstetter. Many thanks to Richard and to UTU Vice President Rick Marceau, who assisted us with the research on this dispute. Now all that remains is to convince BNSF to recognize Referee F. X. Quinn’s decision in that case. Based on past experience, that is far from a sure bet, and we will keep you informed of further developments.