§158 Agreement to Arbitrate; Form and Contents; Signatures and Acknowledgment; Revocation

Summary

Requires that any arbitration agreement be written and must say it is made under this law. The agreement must say whether the arbitration board will have three or six members. The officially authorized representatives of the carrier(s) and of the employees must sign the agreement and have their signatures acknowledged before a notary public, a clerk of a U.S. district court or court of appeals, or a member of the Mediation Board. Once acknowledged, the agreement must be filed in the Mediation Board’s office. The agreement must list the specific questions the board will decide and say the board can only rule on those questions. Any question submitted can be taken out of arbitration if all authorized representatives sign a notice and give it to the board. The agreement must say that a majority of the arbitrators’ signatures on an award make it valid. It must set a deadline from appointing the arbitrators for starting hearings, and a deadline from the start of hearings for making and filing the award (the parties may agree to extend this). It must state when the award takes effect and how long it lasts. The agreement must require that the award and the hearing record, certified by at least a majority of the arbitrators, be filed in the clerk’s office of the U.S. district court for the district where the dispute arose or the arbitration was made (the agreement must name that district). Once filed, that paper record is the full record of the arbitration, and the award is final and binding on the facts and the merits decided. Any dispute about what the award means or how it applies must be sent back to the same board, or to a subcommittee if the parties agree; that board ruling, when acknowledged and filed the same way, becomes part of the award and has the same force. The parties must carry out the award. One party cannot cancel the arbitration agreement alone; it can only be revoked by a written cancellation signed by both parties’ authorized representatives and delivered to the Mediation Board if no board exists yet, or to the arbitration board if it has been formed.