News and Media

Reported by Mark Gruenberg and John Wojcik for People’s World.

Giving in to pressure from Democratic President Joe Biden and corporate rail bosses, the Senate overwhelmingly imposed a four-year contract on 115,000 unionized freight railroad workers—without the seven paid sick days they sought. The contract, which a Biden board crafted, came in legislation the president signed this morning.

Biden, in a speech this morning at his signing of the bill, tried to deflect from anger expressed by workers and their unions by emphasizing that the workers are getting a 24 percent wage increase and that the whole issue of paid sick leave will be considered later, and for everyone, not just the rail workers. But that response, and the failure to insert the sick days into the contract, left workers and union leaders irate.

Reported by Harold Meyerson for The American Prospect.

So, what’s at the root of the conflict at the railroads?

In their very successful effort to raise their profits and payouts to investors, the seven major freight railroads have all but eliminated their competition, downsized their workforces to reduce the share of revenues going to wages, shifted to just-in-time (or sometimes late) delivery, reduced the number of trips (and personnel) by increasing the number of freight cars that the engines haul, and wrapped all of this into a business model called precision scheduled railroading, or PSR. This reduction of operating expenses was imposed on them (not that they resisted) by such Wall Street financiers as hedge fund operator Bill Ackman, who believe that you can never shower too much revenue on your shareholders.

Reported by Josh Funk and Kevin Freking for AP News.

Legislation to avert what could have been an economically ruinous freight rail strike won final approval in Congress on Thursday as lawmakers responded quickly to President Joe Biden’s call for federal intervention in a long-running labor dispute.

The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September. That settlement had been rejected by four of the 12 unions involved, creating the possibility of a strike beginning Dec. 9.

Reported by Trains.

President Joe Biden today signed legislation averting a railroad strike that would have shut down the national freight network and snarled Amtrak and commuter service.

“Our nation’s rail system is literally the backbone of our supply chain, as you all well know. And so much of what we rely on is delivered on our rail, from clean water to food and gas and … every other good. A rail shutdown would have devastated our economy,” Biden said.

The bill, which imposes the Presidential Emergency Board’s contract recommendations and prevents a strike that could have begun on Dec. 9, did not include provisions from separate legislation that would have added paid sick time to the contract between the railroads and a dozen labor organizations.

Reported by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Emily Cochrane for the New York Times.

President Biden signed legislation on Friday to impose a labor agreement between rail companies and workers who had been locked in a bitter dispute, averting a strike that could have upended the economy just before the holiday season.

“Without freight rail, many U.S. industries would literally shut down,” Mr. Biden said before signing the bill, adding that many communities would not have received crucial resources during the strike. “Thanks to the bill Congress passed and what I’m about to sign, we spared the country that catastrophe.”

Mr. Biden had called on Congress earlier this week to intervene in the stalemate and avoid the work stoppage that could have cost the economy $2 billion a day. It was a significant move for Mr. Biden, a staunch union backer who has previously argued against congressional intervention in railway labor disputes, arguing that it unfairly interferes with union bargaining efforts.

WASHINGTON – Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, president and secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, today issued this statement as President Biden signs H.J.Res.100 to prevent a national disruption to freight rail service and end the years-long dispute between rail corporations and workers: “We are disappointed anytime the vote to approve […]

Reported by Karl Evers-Hillstrom for The Hill.

One of the largest railroad unions on Thursday urged senators not to extend the Dec. 9 deadline for rail workers to strike and instead force through a contract that would guarantee paid sick leave for workers.

The plea from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) — whose members rejected a tentative contract with railroads — indicates that senators are considering kicking the can down the road to prevent rail disruptions that would begin this weekend in advance of the deadline.

“Railroad workers are at their breaking point. An extension of the status quo will also deny railroad workers a much needed and well-deserved increase to their pay during a period where they have felt the woes of inflation. It has been three years since Railroad Workers have received a raise. They should not have to wait two more months,” Tony Caldwell, BMWED’s national division president, wrote in a letter to senators.

Reported by Timothy Noah for The New Republic.

From time to time the Democrats are given an opportunity to demonstrate that they’re still the party of the working class. They have one now, but it looks like they’re going to flub it.

A railroad contract negotiated in September by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh was voted down by four of the 12 unions needed to ratify it, including the biggest one, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, which represents train conductors. That left the Biden administration and Congress with four choices. They could have allowed a threatened rail strike to move forward; Biden could have imposed, unilaterally, a cooling-off period under the 1926 Railway Labor Act; they could, under the same law, have forced the parties to accept a modified version of the Walsh contract that addressed the unions’ objections; or they could have forced the parties to accept the Walsh contract.

Reported by Kevin Freking and Josh Funk for AP News.

The U.S. House moved urgently to head off the looming nationwide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.

The measure passed by a vote of 290-137 and now heads to the Senate. If approved there, it will be signed by President Joe Biden, who urged the Senate to act swiftly.

Reported by Alex Daugherty, Burgess Everett, Tanya Snyder and Nick Niedzwiadek for Politico Pro.

The Senate voted Thursday to avert a freight rail strike just days before crucial drinking water, food and energy shipments were set to be sidelined, after hurried talks in both chambers of Congress and a visit to the Senate from two of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet secretaries — but a bipartisan push to add paid sick leave to the deal fell short.