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5were moved up to the front of the train with the locomotive engineer. Eliminating the position ofbrakemen meant that CN needed less running trades’ employees to run its trains. The reduction inthe number of employees was done through the negotiation process with the Union. Thenegotiation resulted in the creation of the “furlough boards”.[21] A “furlough board” comes into existence when there is a surplus of employees, but notenough work for everyone. The “furlough board” will then guarantee the employee’s earnings upto the 4,300 miles provided for in the Collective Agreement whether he or she works or not. Theemployee on the “furlough board” has to remain available for work, but if he or she isn’t called togo to work, he or she still gets paid his or her salary.2010 CHRT 23 (CanLII)[22] The changes made to the working conditions in 1992, also created the notion of “forcing”,which produces different results for different categories of employees in the running trades.According to section 148.11 of the Collective Agreement, employees hired subsequent toJune 29 th , 1990, can be forced to cover work at another terminal in the Western region and areobligated to report at that terminal within, at most thirty (30) days unless they present a“satisfactory reason” justifying their failure to do so. These employees are commonly referred toas “category D” employees. They are also referred to as “non-protected” employees, insofar asthey are obligated to respond to a recall outside of their terminal.[23] Other categories of employees include those who were hired prior to June 29, 1990.These are referred to as “protected” employees. In this group of “protected employees” we havethose who were hired prior to 1982 and who are referred to as “Category A” and “Category B”employees, respectively. These employees cannot be assigned for work outside of their localterminals. Employees hired after 1982 but prior to June 29, 1990, are referred to as “Category C”employees and may only be assigned to protect work at adjacent terminals. For example,“Category C” employees at the Jasper terminal could only be assigned to the adjacent terminals ofEdson and Kamloops.[24] The status of “protected” employees represents an exception to the general rule. Thenumber of these employees will diminish over time through simple attrition and the status will