Biden Avoids Rail Strike With New Deal, But Not Everyone Is Happy

Joe Biden signed legislation imposing a deal he negotiated between freight railroads and organized labor, averting a possible strike but risking a divide with rank-and-file union workers who opposed the settlement.

“It was tough for me,” said Biden at a signing ceremony at the White House on Friday, while heralding the bill as the only option to avert a disastrous work stoppage that would have threatened key supply chains ahead of the Christmas holiday. “It was the right thing to do at the moment, to save jobs to protect millions of working families from harm and destruction, and to keep supply chain stable around the holidays.”

But the president risks alienating labor activists and workers who have long proven key political allies, further undermining the relationship between Democrats and the white working class, and fomenting pressure to deliver on a key promise -- expanding paid sick leave -- that ranks as unlikely-to-impossible as Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in the new Congress.

Biden has said labor unions will have to wait to obtain sick leave, which was left out of the contract, but provided no timetable on when he could deliver. Asked when workers could expect those benefits, Biden said: “As soon as I can convince our Republicans to see the light.”

An effort by Democrats to amend the deal to include seven days of paid sick leave for workers came up short when it failed to garner the Republican votes needed in the Senate. A sick leave amendment, pushed by independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont received 52 votes, short of the sixty votes needed to pass.

GOP lawmakers have seized on the dispute to highlight Biden’s rift with organized labor. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was among the conservative Republicans taking up the workers’ cause, using it to excoriate the White House.

“All these people during Covid work from home all the time, fine,” Hawley told reporters Thursday. “Who knows how many people in the White House are still working from home. And yet if a railway worker wants more than one day of sick leave, oh, oh my goodness we couldn’t possibly do that.”

Hawley, along with several other Republicans, voted for the additional sick leave and against legislation to impose the deal, lining up with a handful of Senate liberals such as Sanders and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

The vote from GOP Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for paid sick leave led Sanders to joke on the Senate floor, “I knew you were a socialist.”

But Republicans, who largely oppose intervening in labor disputes and who have come out against extending such benefits in the past, are unlikely to provide Biden the help needed to move paid sick leave legislation for rail or other workers in the next Congress.

Union Rift

Biden has called himself the most pro-union president in US history, but his actions over the rail strike threaten to undermine the president and union leaders’ support from rank-and-file workers.

In the months after he personally negotiated the September settlement, four of the 12 unions involved in the negotiation -- representing roughly 54,500 workers - rejected the contract. The unions that approved it represent about 43,000 workers, according to the National Railway Labor Conference.

One former union president, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics, expressed frustration at the AFL-CIO’s lack of involvement, which he saw as a tacit endorsement of Biden’s plan to leave out sick leave.

“Biden wouldn’t be out there unless he had the blessing of these unions,” the person said. “This is the difference, as my great-grandmother used to say -- time to watch your feet and not your mouth.”

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday said it was “deeply disappointed” by Biden’s decision to impose a settlement.

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