Thursday, December 1st, the Senate voted 80-15 to intervene in a potential rail strike. It is the first time Congress has intervened in a rail labor dispute since 1991.
The bill excludes paid sick leave, a major demand of rail unions. By 52-43, the Senate rejected Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) proposal to include seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers. To pass, sixty votes were required.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a separate bill requiring seven days of paid sick leave. It appears that Biden will support legislation that excludes sick leave.
According to the Association of American Railroads, which represents rail companies, the average freight rail employee receives three weeks of paid vacation and up to 14 days of personal leave.
However, rail employees report that taking advantage of this time off takes a lot of work. BNSF, for example, had a policy earlier this year that penalized employees who refused to work a shift, even if they had a medical or family emergency. According to a representative, the railroad discontinued this policy in June.
Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Ala., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., proposed an amendment to add a 60-day cooling-off period to the rail negotiations. A vote of 26-69 defeated it.
President Joe Biden previously stated that legislation to prevent a potentially disastrous rail strike would be on his desk by Saturday.
If Biden approves this legislation, as he has stated, railroad workers will be unable to strike legally. They could stage a “wildcat” walkout, but their employers could legally replace them or obtain a federal judge’s injunction ordering striking workers back to work.
A multi-year negotiating process
The nation’s major rail companies and its 12 rail unions have been negotiating labor contracts since January 2020. These unions collectively represent approximately 115,000 workers at the freight rail companies BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific in the United States.
According to Bloomberg, the operating margins for the five largest railroads in the United States will reach 41% in 2021, up from 29% ten years ago. According to a joint statement issued by a group of Democratic senators, the rail industry earned a record $21.2 billion in profits during the first three quarters of 2022.
Class I railroads have struggled to keep trains running since the middle of 2020, after laying off thousands of workers at the end of the decade and even more at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, many rail employers have made it more difficult for employees to obtain time off for medical or family emergencies.
The White House intervened in September to mediate an agreement between the unions and rail employers. The tentative agreement provides rail employees with a 24% wage increase by 2024, the largest in decades.
The agreement, however, fell short of union demands for 15 days of paid sick leave. It included one extra paid day off and three periods of medical leave.
On Monday evening, November 28th, Biden urged Congress to take immediate action to avert a rail strike. Unions and lawmakers, both liberal and conservative, slammed Biden, who had previously been hailed as a pro-labor president.
