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6[26] The work schedule of a Conductor is very unpredictable. Depending on which board theConductor is set on, he or she may know more or less about the kind of work he or she may becalled upon to execute. Therefore, all working assignments on road service have totallyunpredictable schedules. A Conductor is expected to be available to report to work within twohours of receiving a call from CMC. Once a Conductor reports for duty, he or she will have noidea of when exactly they will return home. They may be gone for a few hours up to almost twodays.[27] Running trade employees work on a mileage basis. The working board is adjusted on aweekly basis so that each employee can do approximately 4,300 miles a month. When doing theadjustment of the working board, CN will look at the previous week to see how many miles weremade by the employees. They will divide this number by 4,300 and the result will indicate thenumber of employees that would potentially be needed at a certain terminal for the followingweek.2010 CHRT 22 (CanLII)[28] At all relevant times to this matter, Conductors in the Western Region of Canada wererepresented by the United Transportation Union (“Union”). The applicable collective agreementfor Conductors in the Western Region is Agreement 4.3 (the “Collective Agreement”).c) The changes made in 1992 and the creation of the furlough boards[29] In 1992, technological changes allowed CN to do away with the car at the tail end of thetrain, which is commonly known as the “caboose”. This decision prompted the elimination of theposition of brakeman. After this decision, Conductors, who used to work in the “caboose”, weremoved up to the front of the train with the locomotive engineer. Eliminating the position ofbrakeman 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.The negotiation resulted in the creation of the “furlough boards”.[30] A “furlough board” comes into existence when there is a surplus of employees at aterminal, but not enough work for everyone. The employee on the “furlough board” has to remain