The vote of railroad labor union members failed to approve September’s White House-negotiated deal, so last night Biden announced that government must force the unions to accept the deal: “I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators – without any modifications or delay – to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.” Congress has the power under a 1926 railway act to do so, as, in this case, transportation is recognized as a vital concern for the country.
A central issue is the denial of paid sick days for the 115,000 rail workers. Biden’s statement says that he shares “workers’ concern about the inability to take leave to recover from illness or care for a sick family member. No one should have to choose between their job and their health – or the health of their children…. Every other developed country in the world has such protections for its workers.” But the simple fact is that he has consistently refused to press the employers on the matter.
Biden even tries to claim: “I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office, and will continue to do so” and calls himself “a proud pro-labor President” – yet he provides no explanation as to his complete lack of support over the last two years of the rail negotiations. Rather, the September deal, in rejecting even 4 days/year of paid sick leave, offered 3 unpaid days off a year for engineers and conductors to attend to medical appointments, but only if scheduled at least 30 days in advance. Further, the railroads agreed to not penalize workers who end up hospitalized.
