- The Senate voted to impose a tentative agreement and avert an economy-rattling rail strike.
- However, the Senate did not pass a resolution to add 7 sick days for workers, a key demand.
The Senate stepped in to push through a rail deal and avert a potentially economy-rattling strike — but left rail workers without the paid sick leave they had been demanding.
In a 80 to 15 vote, the Senate passed a resolution to enact the tentative agreement brokered by the White House that was shot down by four out of twelve rail unions who voted on it. The move comes after President Joe Biden asked Congress to step in and enact the tentative agreement as is, which Congress is allowed to do for rail industry labor disputes. The agreement will give workers a gradual 24% raise.
But a separate measure to add seven days of sick leave — currently, workers have none, and the tentative agreement would grant them one additional personal day — failed to get 60 votes, with just 52 senators voting in favor. The House had voted to pass both the legislation enacting the tentative agreement and the addition of seven sick days.
"This vote was a blatant endorsement of corporate America and the too big to fail corporations that are allowed to have free reign over the US economy," Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer in Idaho who is a steering-committee member for Railroad Workers United, told Insider.
"We were so close. It's just shameful," Lindsey added.
A strike could have cost the US economy $2 billion a day, and jeopardized access to clean drinking water, as chlorine to clean water is carried primarily through rail. It would've also strained a still-recovering supply chain and potentially sent already high prices on goods even higher.
"I think the votes are despicable, not necessarily surprising," Ron Kaminkow, organizer for Railroad Workers United and a locomotive engineer, told Insider. "I think the average railroader is not very happy right now with either political party."
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who helped spearhead the push for sick days and voted against pushing through the agreement, put out a statement lamenting the outcome of the Senate vote. "I'm proud that the House of Representatives passed legislation to guarantee seven days of paid sick leave for all rail workers. While I'm disappointed that we were unable to get the 60 votes we needed in the Senate, we did receive the votes of every Senate Democrat, but one, as well as six Republicans."
Sanders also said he would continue to push for paid leave. "Let me be clear. This struggle is not over. At a time of record-breaking profits for the rail industry, it is disgraceful that railroad workers do not have a single day of paid sick leave. As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I will do everything I can to make sure that rail workers in America are treated with dignity and respect."
Six Republicans — including Sens. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham — joined 46 Democrats in voting for the paid sick day provision. Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist, was the only Democrat to vote against it.
The push to avert a strike presented a crossroads for the Biden administration, which had to weigh substantive economic impacts against its stated goal to be the country's most pro-labor administration.
"As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement," Biden said in his statement calling for the Congress to step in and pass the tentative agreement. "But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal."
Biden called on Congress to bring legislation to his desk "well in advance" of December 9, the earliest workers could strike. The bill now heads to him, and Biden said he will sign it as soon as it arrives on his desk.
"I know that many in Congress shared my reluctance to override the union ratification procedures," Biden said in a statement on the bill's passage. "But in this case, the consequences of a shutdown were just too great for working families all across the country."