News and Media

Reported by Joan McCarter for Daily Kos.

The Senate voted Thursday to force the railway unions to accept the tentative agreement they had reached with rail companies back in September and averting a potential rail strike that would have begun on Dec. 7. That vote was 80-15 with one—Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)—voting present.

The Senate failed to garner enough votes to pass an attached resolution from the House that required the companies to provide 7 days of paid sick leave to railway workers—the sticking point for labor in the contract. It failed in a 52-43 vote, not reaching the necessary 60. Having failed to secure that sick leave for workers, the Senate concluded legislative work for the week, not scheduled to come back until next Monday, late in the afternoon.

Reported by Ian Kullgren and Diego Areas Munhoz for Bloomberg Law.

President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour push to head off a rail strike with a Congressional intervention may have cleared the House Wednesday, but the long-term consequences for Democrats’ relationship with unions—not to mention the bill’s future in the Senate—are anyone’s guess.

The race to pre-empt a nationwide rail shutdown just before Christmas is fraying Democrats’ relationships with one another and unions themselves, with left-leaning members smarting over what they see as a betrayal of their union base. Biden finds himself in the exact jam he sought to avoid in September, when he dispatched Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to broker a deal between unions and rail executives.

Reported by Tim Ryan for Law 360.

Congress is poised to avert a rail strike by passing legislation imposing the terms of a tentative agreement between unions and railroads, but experts and labor advocates said resentment from the action could linger.

The House voted Wednesday to pass a bill adopting the terms of a tentative agreement unions and railroads negotiated earlier this year as well as a separate measure to provide workers seven days of paid sick leave. Four of the 12 unions that represent railroad workers voted to reject the tentative agreement in recent weeks, setting up the prospects of a large-scale strike starting Dec. 9 if the sides could not reach an agreement members would ratify.

Reported by Kasie Hunt for MSNBC

MSNBC – Rail Union Rep. “Disappointed Vote is Taken From Workers”

Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, joined MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt to discuss the ongoing Senate votes on the national rail labor dispute.

Reported by Isabella Murray, Trish Turner, and Allison Pecorin for ABC News.

The Senate on Thursday voted to avert a looming strike of the nation’s railway workers by forcing a labor agreement.

A bipartisan majority of senators approved a House bill that will codify a tentative agreement between the rail companies and rail unions, which was brokered in September and subsequently rejected by some of the workers.

ABC News  (Video)

Transportation Trades Department President at the AFL CIO, Greg Regan, discusses the demands being made by rail workers and the cultural issues within rail corporations.

WASHINGTON – Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, president and secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO, today issued this statement regarding a potential extension of the cooling off period for rail negotiations: “As the nation’s largest transportation labor federation, we proudly represent the dozen rail unions involved in the ongoing national contract […]

Reported by Erik Wasson for Bloomberg Law.

The House passed legislation aimed at averting a crippling nationwide US freight rail strike, sending it to the Senate, which could take action as soon as this week.

The bill, passed Wednesday on a 290-137 bipartisan vote, would impose a labor agreement hammered out by rail companies, labor leaders and the Biden administration months ago but rejected by workers in four of 12 unions.

The House separately voted 221-207 to pass a related bill that would revise the original deal to add seven days of paid sick leave to the contract, one of the chief sticking points between unions and companies. Only three Republicans voted for the sick leave measure, which doesn’t bode well for it getting enough GOP support in the Senate to pass. The Senate could choose to go along with the change or ignore it without affecting the original legislation.

Reported by Sarah Zimmerman for Construction Dive.

House lawmakers approved a legislative package Wednesday that averts an economically damaging rail strike or lockout while still keeping the door open for workers to secure paid sick leave.

Legislators passed two resolutions: One forces four holdout unions to accept their rejected contract as written, which includes the biggest wage increase in decades plus expanded health coverage. The other amends the tentative agreement to include seven days sick leave, which workers had pushed for arguing they can’t take time off in the case of a short-term illness.

Reported by Jules Roscoe for Vice.

Workers’ unions—one of President Biden’s most important voting blocs—are furious that he and Democrats in Congress have sold out freight rail workers by forcing unions to accept the Tentative Agreement they rejected in October. In the statement, Biden self-labels as a “proud pro-labor President,” and says he is “reluctant” to have to override the ratification process, but that he believes a full-on rail strike would be far too economically devastating for the country.

One of the top posts on Reddit over the past few days is a political poster of Biden styled like Barack Obama’s famous “HOPE” poster. “SCAB,” it says.