President Joe Biden signed a bill into law making a rail strike illegal, stopping employees from walking off the job weeks before the vacation season.
“The bill I’m about to sign ends a difficult rail dispute and helps our nation avoid what, for sure, would have been an economic catastrophe at a really bad time within the calendar,” Biden said Friday morning before signing the bill.
After his administration aided in negotiations for months, and the edges reached a tentative agreement in September, talks ultimately stalled and rail employees threatened a strike. Biden then asked Congress to intervene, and the Senate passed a bill Thursday making a strike illegal.
The initial agreement brokered by the Biden administration was accepted by all but 4 rail unions, who were holding out for guaranteed paid sick leave days. The opposing unions, though, represent the vast majority of rail employees. The employees and corporations had until Dec. 9 to succeed in an agreement before they vowed to strike, which the industry estimated would cost the U.S. economy $2 billion per day.
“Our nation’s rail is literally the backbone of our supply chain,” Biden said Friday. “A lot of what we depend on is delivered on rail, from clean water to food and gas and each other good. A rail shut down would have devastated our economy. Without freight rail, lots of our industries would have literally shut down.”
A strike by rail employees so near the vacation season — and in a period of high inflation — could potentially raze the economy. Biden was adamant that Congress send the laws to his desk by Saturday. Without an agreement, rail movement of certain goods was set to be curtailed as soon as this weekend in preparation for the strike.
Biden on the bill signing Friday said his economic advisors told him as many as 765,000 Americans, “lots of them union members themselves,” would have lost their jobs.
Railroad carriers begin prepping for a strike seven days upfront, in response to federal safety measures. The carriers begin to prioritize the securing and movement of sensitive materials resembling chlorine for drinking water and dangerous materials.
Ninety-six hours before a strike date, chemicals aren’t any longer transported. The American Chemistry Council found a drop of 1,975 carloads of chemical shipments through the week of Sept. 10, when the railroads stopped accepting shipments resulting from the previous threat of a rail strike.
The 4 major railroads also typically move greater than 80% of the agricultural freight traffic, in response to the National Grain and Feed Association.
Congress has the authority to manage interstate commerce under Article 1, Section 8 of the Structure, and the Supreme Court has ruled it may well use that authority to intervene in disputes by rail labor which have the potential to affect trade across state lines. An almost century-old law, the Railway Labor Act of 1926, gives the president the authority to intervene as well in situations where a rail strike could significantly affect essential transportation. The act has been invoked 18 times because it was signed into law.
The House on Wednesday approved a separate measure that may have added seven days of paid sick leave to the contract as a substitute of only one. Though it had bipartisan support in each chambers, that measure was defeated within the Senate vote. Biden on the bill signing thanked Congress for acting so quickly despite the fact that he acknowledged it wasn’t a simple vote.
“I do know this was a tricky vote for members of each parties. It was a tricky vote for me,” Biden said. “However it was the proper thing to do in the mean time to avoid wasting jobs, to guard thousands and thousands of working families from harm and disruption and to maintain the availability chain stable around the vacations.”
The situation put “union Joe” Biden in a difficult position. Biden said Thursday that he supports unions as much as ever, but as president of america, reasonably than a single senator from Delaware, it was his job to look out for all Americans. He said has long been a proponent of paid sick leave, and can still work to make it a right for all employees, not only rail employees.
The initial agreement brokered by the White House would give rail employees a 24% pay increase over five years from 2020 through 2024, immediate payouts averaging $11,000 upon ratification. Under the agreement, employees would receive one extra paid day without work and the promise they might attend medical appointments without penalty.
Staff, though, balked at the shortage of paid sick leave, because under the agreement they might need to use unpaid day without work for medical appointments. Biden on Friday acknowledged his disappointment that paid sick leave was not included within the agreement.
“Look, I do know this bill doesn’t have paid sick leave that these employees, frankly every employee in America, deserves, but that fight is not over,” Biden said. “I didn’t commit we were going to stop, that simply because we couldn’t get it into this bill that we were going to stop fighting for it. I supported paid sick leave for a very long time and I will proceed that fight until we succeed.”
Union leaders told CNBC they might remember who sided against them in upcoming elections. Union support was critical to forming Biden’s ultimately-winning coalition within the 2020 election.
“Our membership goes to support whoever stands with them,” said Tony Cardwell, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division. “It’s looking just like the Democrats are standing with our members and ensuring that our members get sick leave. If that is the case, we’ll. If Republicans are daring enough to step out, stand with labor, stand with the blue-collar employees, and vote with our members, then it’s likely that they’ll gain votes as well.”
The availability so as to add seven days of paid sick leave failed within the Senate in a 52-43 vote. All Democrats present to vote supported it except Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V. Six Republicans also backed the measure.
Within the House, three GOP representatives joined with all Democrats to pass the sick-leave proposal.
