WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. House acted with urgency to avert a looming national rail strike Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed deal that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.
The measure passed 290 to 137 and now goes to the Senate. If it passes there, it will be signed by President Joe Biden, who urged the Senate to act quickly.
“Without the certainty of a final vote to avoid a shutdown this week, railroads will begin halting the movement of critical materials like chemicals to clean our drinking water as early as this weekend,” Biden said. “Let me say that again: Without action this week, disruptions will begin in our auto supply chains, our ability to move food to our tables, and our ability to remove hazardous waste from gasoline refineries”.
Business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation have warned that stopping rail service would cause a devastating $2 billion a day impact on the economy.
The bill would impose a compromise labor agreement negotiated by the Biden administration that was ultimately rejected by four of the 12 unions that represent roughly 115,000 employees of the major freight railroads. Unions have threatened to strike if an agreement cannot be reached by the December 9 deadline.
Lawmakers from both parties expressed reservations about scrapping the negotiations. The intervention was particularly difficult for Democratic lawmakers who have traditionally tried to align themselves with politically powerful unions that criticized Biden’s decision to intervene in the contract dispute and block a strike.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to that concern by adding a second vote Wednesday that would add seven days of paid leave per year for rail workers covered by the deal. However, it will only take effect if the Senate approves and approves both measures. The House also passed the sick leave measure, but by a much narrower margin, 221-207, as Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it, indicating the supplement’s prospects for passage are slim in the equally divided Senate.
Business groups and the American Association of Railroads trade association praised the House vote to block the strike, but urged senators to resist adding sick time to the deal.
“Unless Congress wants to become the de facto end point for future negotiations, any effort to put a thumb on the negotiating scale to artificially benefit either side, or prevent a quick resolution, would be totally irresponsible,” he said. said Ian Jefferies, head of the AAR.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation’s labor coalition, which includes all railroad unions, praised the vote to add sick time, telling lawmakers who voted against it that they had “abandoned their constituents from the working class”.
The focus is now on the Senate, where the timing of the vote is unclear. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will meet with Democratic senators on Thursday to discuss rail negotiations. Some Democrats are insisting that the Senate vote to provide seven days of paid sick leave.
“A multibillion-dollar buyback industry that has doubled its profit margins during the pandemic shouldn’t be able to force its workers to come in when they’re sick and injured,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
But most Republicans are reluctant to change the tentative deal reached in September.
“I think it’s a bad precedent for us to get into the nuances and details of things like this that have been negotiated for three years,” said Sen. John Thune, RS.D.
The call for paid sick leave was a major talking point along with other quality of life concerns. The railroads say unions have agreed in decades-long negotiations to forego paid sick leave in favor of higher wages and hefty short-term disability benefits.
Jefferies said Tuesday that the railroads would consider adding paid sick time in the future, but said the change would have to wait for a new round of negotiations.
Unions maintain that railroads can easily afford to add paid sick hours at a time when they are posting record profits. Several of the major railroads involved in these contract talks reported profits of more than $1 billion in the third quarter.
“Frankly, the fact that paid leave is not part of the final agreement between the railroads and labor is, in my opinion, obscene,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Most railroad workers do not receive paid sick leave, but they do have short-term disability benefits that kick in after as little as four days and can replace part of their earnings for a year or more. Rail workers also receive vacation days and personal leave, but workers say it’s difficult to use them for illness because they usually have to be approved well in advance.
In the House, Republicans expressed support for the measure to block the strike, but criticized the Biden administration for turning to Congress to “step in to fix the mess.” Some 79 Republicans overwhelmingly voted for the bill that binds the parties to the tentative agreement.
But Republicans criticized Pelosi’s decision to add the sick leave bill to the mix, with only three of them voting in favor of the resolution. They said the Biden administration’s own special board of arbitrators recommended higher wages to compensate unions for not including sick time in its recommendations.
“Why do we even have the system set up the way it is if Congress comes in and makes changes to all the recommendations?” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo.
Pelosi tried to position Democrats and the Biden administration as union defenders, but said Congress needed to step in to prevent a strike.
“Families wouldn’t be able to buy groceries or life-saving medicine because it would be even more expensive and perishables would spoil before they hit the shelves,” Pelosi said.
The compromise agreement that was supported by the railroads and most unions calls for a 24 percent increase and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020 along with an additional day of paid leave. The raises would be the biggest rail workers have received in more than four decades. Workers would have to pay a larger share of health insurance costs, but their premiums would be limited to 15% of the total cost of the insurance plan. The agreement did not resolve workers’ concerns about schedules that make it difficult to take a day off and the lack of more paid sick time.
On several previous occasions, Congress has intervened in labor disputes by enacting legislation to delay or prohibit railroad and airline strikes.
___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.