Topline
The Senate approved a new contract between railroad companies and labor unions on Thursday in a last-minute vote, ahead of a December 9 deadline that could trigger a nationwide railroad strike and severely hamstring the economy—but Senators rejected the unions’ demands for paid sick leave.
Sen. Joe Manchin was the lone Democrat to vote against the sick leave policy. (Photo by Kevin … [+]
Key Facts
The Senate voted 80-15 in favor of an agreement, which was brokered by the Biden Administration in September and includes a 24% raise through 2024.
In a separate 52-43 vote, the Senate rejected seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers, who have complained that current policies keep them on call for days or weeks at a time and penalize those who call out sick.
There were six Republicans who voted for the paid sick leave policy, but one Democrat — Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) — who voted against it.
Prior to voting on those two measures, which were both approved by the House on Wednesday, Senators also voted down an amendment, 26-69, that would have extended the negotiating period by 60 days to give the parties more time to reach a compromise.
The bill now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden, who pleaded with Congress to approve the labor deal on Monday.
Key Background
Congress intervened in the contract negotiations after members of four of the 12 rail industry labor unions voted against the agreement Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board negotiated in September, citing the lack of paid short-term sick leave. The other eight unions voted to ratify the agreement, but were expected to stay home from work in solidarity if the four holdouts go on strike. Railroad companies, meanwhile, have contended that the pay raises offered by the contract are among the highest in decades. Progressive lawmakers sided with the rail companies and introduced amendments to include the paid sick leave in the contract. But the unions have little recourse now that the Senate has approved the deal without the new sick leave policy. “If Congress imposes the terms of our next contract, then pursuant to the Railway Labor Act, that’s the end of the line,” Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Spokesperson Clark Ballew told Forbes this week, citing the 1926 labor law that gives the federal government the power to intervene in railroad contract disputes.
Crucial Quote
“The issue is paid sick leave,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on the Senate floor Thursday. “They are one of the few industries in America today that have zero sick paid leave. Unbelievably, if a worker on the rail industry today gets sick, that worker gets a mark for missing work and can, and in some cases will, be fired.”
Tangent
The Senate vote comes after Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Thursday warned that railroad companies would begin slowing operations as early as this weekend to prepare for a strike if Congress did not reach a deal before Friday.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/12/01/senate-approves-contract-to-avert-rail-strike-but-denies-unions-request-for-more-sick-leave/