Senate rejects paid sick leave for rail workers
Speaking on the U.S. Senate floor Thursday before votes on a trio of bills affecting the nation’s freight rail employees, Sen. Bernie Sanders said he had one “simple question” to ask: “Are any Republicans prepared to stand with rail workers who have zero paid sick days or are they instead going to back the outrageous greed of the rail industry?”
Sanders (I-Vt.) got his answer a short time later when 42 Republicans—and serial Democratic obstructionist Joe Manchin of West Virginia—voted down Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-N.Y.) proposal to include seven paid sick days in the tentative contract being foisted upon rail workers by Congress and the Biden administration under the terms of the Railway Labor Act of 1926 in order to avoid a strike that experts say could cost the nation’s economy $2 billion per day. The White House-brokered tentative contract was previously rejected by more than half of the nation’s unionized freight rail employees.
Six Republican senators voted for the sick leave measure: Mike Braun (Ind.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), John Kennedy (La.), and Marco Rubio (Fla.).
The senators also voted 80-15 to approve the contract supported by President Joe Biden—who once called himself the “most pro-labor president” in U.S. history—to force freight rail workers to remain on the job under pain of termination. A third measure, which would have extended the negotiation period by another 60 days, was rejected.
The Biden administration had urged senators to quickly legislation to thwart a potential strike by the nation’s freight rail employees, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg telling CNBC Thursday that “there is no substitute in the American transportation system for a functioning freight rail network,” and that a strike “wouldn’t just bring down our rail system, it would really shut down our economy.”
Responding to the Senate rejecting his House-approved resolution, Bowman tweeted that “Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have yet AGAIN failed working Americans by voting down seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers.”
“I’m truly disgusted by their inability to care about workers,” he added. “They continue to put profits over people and it’s sickening.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on Twitter that “rail corporations have made money hand over fist, doubling profit margins and spending billions on stock buybacks. It’s shameful the vast majority of Republican senators blocked essential rail workers from receiving guaranteed paid sick leave.”
Under the Railway Labor Act of 1926, which critics have long condemned as anti-worker, Congress can pass legislation forcing employees to stay on the job.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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