).  Following a 20-year practice of permitting smoking in outside smoking areas, a company unilaterally imposed a company-wide smoking ban.  An arbitrator ruled that the ban violated the collective-bargaining agreement, where the agreement provided that any privilege not mentioned in the agreement and enjoyed by employees continues and contains no management rights clause.  The arbitrator found that the ability to smoke at work falls within the agreement’s definition of “privilege.”  Thus, the company was ordered to reinstate five designated, outside smoking areas that existed prior to the new policy.

Local 382, 104 LA 757 (1995).