The issue for an arbitrator to decide is whether the company’s establishment of a new no-smoking policy violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the parties.  The union argued that a 1987 policy restricting smoking was fair.  The company said that it had notified the employees in 1988 that it was eventually going to ban smoking anywhere on its premises.  The arbitrator decided that “the Company’s rule is suited to Company purposes and it cannot be considered capricious or arbitrary.”  Therefore, the union’s grievance was denied.

  99 LA 733, FMCS File No. 91/20408 (1992).