{"id":901775,"date":"2022-11-30T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T11:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2022\/11\/railworkers-labor-dispute-joe-biden-paid-sick-leave-contract-strike\/"},"modified":"2022-11-30T11:45:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T11:45:35","slug":"by-siding-against-railworkers-biden-is-breaking-his-promise-of-paid-sick-leave-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/11\/30\/by-siding-against-railworkers-biden-is-breaking-his-promise-of-paid-sick-leave-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"By Siding Against Railworkers, Biden Is Breaking His Promise of Paid Sick Leave for All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Joe Biden is standing with railroad barons to force a deal on workers who are demanding a reasonable amount of paid sick leave. It\u2019s the latest and possibly starkest example of the chasm between his pro-worker rhetoric during his campaign and his presidency.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n Activists in support of unionized rail workers protest outside the US Capitol Building on November 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

As a labor dispute between railworkers and railroad companies barrels toward a nationwide rail strike, President Joe Biden is standing with railroad barons to force a deal on workers that not only falls far short of their demands, but also goes against Biden\u2019s own promises to grant reasonable paid sick leave to all Americans.<\/p>\n

The move is the latest and possibly starkest example of the\u00a0chasm<\/a> between Biden\u2019s pro-worker rhetoric during his campaign and presidency, and the numerous pro-corporate actions he has taken in the White House.<\/p>\n

As part of his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden\u00a0pledged<\/a>\u00a0that he would ensure all workers have at least seven paid sick days. And early in his presidency, he\u00a0called on Congress<\/a>\u00a0to pass a bill that would require companies to let all of their workers accrue at least seven days of paid sick leave per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a national disgrace that millions of our fellow citizens don\u2019t have a single day of paid sick leave available to them,\u201d Biden said in a March 2020 campaign speech.<\/p>\n

But this\u00a0September<\/a>, Biden reversed course, helping\u00a0negotiate a deal<\/a> between railroad bosses and unions that would only grant workers a single paid sick day per year, despite the unions pushing for as many as\u00a0fifteen sick days<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a number they were ultimately willing to reduce to as\u00a0few as four<\/a>. Now, to avoid a shutdown of the nation\u2019s rail network, he is asking Congress to force that deal on workers who voted to reject it.<\/p>\n

With Democrats in full control of Congress for just a few more weeks, Biden could be using this moment to push lawmakers to pass the party\u2019s landmark union rights legislation or implement a national paid leave policy. Instead, he is calling on Democrats and Republicans alike to side with highly profitable railroad companies and crush their workers.<\/p>\n

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has demanded that any back-to-work legislation include the unions\u2019 paid sick leave demands and pledged<\/a> Tuesday that he will slow down the Senate\u2019s process unless lawmakers pass an amendment of his guaranteeing five to seven paid sick days. Sanders is reportedly working with<\/a> Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on the proposal. Even the conservative Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado demanded<\/a> Tuesday that any legislation include at least seven days of paid sick leave.<\/p>\n

That contention was echoed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who tweeted<\/a> Tuesday, \u201cRailroad workers grind themselves to the bone for this country as their labor produces billions for Wall St. They demand the basic dignity of paid sick days. I stand with them. If Congress intervenes, it should be to have workers\u2019 backs and secure their demands in legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Tuesday evening<\/a> that the House will vote Wednesday on the Biden-negotiated deal as well as a separate proposal to add seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement.<\/p>\n

Sanders said in an MSNBC interview Tuesday that Senate minority whip John Cornyn (R-TX) indicated in the GOP caucus meeting Tuesday there may be significant Republican support for his paid sick day amendment, after Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted, \u201cI will not vote to impose a deal that doesn\u2019t have the support of the rail workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), for his part, said<\/a> Tuesday that workers\u2019 demands for paid sick leave are \u201cquite reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Most \u201cPro-Union President\u201d?<\/h2>\n \n

While much of the\u00a0corporate media\u2019s coverage<\/a> of the looming rail strike has focused on how the work stoppage would make a slowing economy worse and cause havoc over the holidays, far less attention has been paid to the circumstances that led the nation\u2019s railworkers to consider such an extreme move.<\/p>\n

Railworkers are somewhat unique in that they aren\u2019t protected by the National Labor Relations Act, which protects workers\u2019 right to strike at any time if their contract is expired. Instead, they are covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), an earlier law that requires workers to navigate a convoluted process before they are allowed to strike.<\/p>\n

Railworkers, claiming deteriorating working conditions, have been negotiating a new contract with railroad companies for three years<\/a>. A key sticking point has been the matter of paid sick leave \u2014 because currently, workers\u00a0don\u2019t get any<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Railroad companies have been slashing their workforces for years, leaving workers on call for days and weeks on end with zero days of paid sick leave. Workers\u00a0say<\/a>\u00a0that two of the largest railroad companies, Union Pacific and\u00a0BNSF<\/a>, have implemented onerous attendance policies that make it impossible for workers to go to the doctor or help with family emergencies. These policies have led to mass\u00a0resignations<\/a>, making the jobs even harder for workers who remain.<\/p>\n

As contract negotiations ground to a halt this summer, Biden convened an emergency board in July to make recommendations to the railroad bosses and union negotiators on a path forward.<\/p>\n

But when Biden\u2019s board came up with a tentative agreement in September, it didn\u2019t even come close to meeting the workers\u2019 paid sick leave demands \u2014 only including a single day of paid sick leave.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the railroad companies don\u2019t believe workers who make the industry run deserve any credit for their profitability, according to Biden\u2019s emergency board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carriers maintain that capital investment and risk are the reasons for their profits, not any contributions by labor,\u201d the board wrote in its August\u00a0report<\/a>. \u201cThe carriers further argue that there is no correlation historically between high profits and higher compensation, either in the freight rail industry or more generally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week<\/a>, the country\u2019s largest rail union \u2014 the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers\u2019 Transportation Division, representing twenty-eight thousand railroad workers \u2014 voted to reject the proposed agreement. This followed \u201cno\u201d votes on the deal from the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees-Teamsters, and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers \u2014 unions that together represent nearly sixty thousand of the hundred thousand union railworkers who could go on strike if no agreement is reached.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Biden\u00a0called<\/a> on Congress to impose the agreement legislatively, overriding railworkers and bipartisan critics of the deal for the sake of the nation\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a proud pro-labor president, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement,\u201d Biden said in a statement. \u201cBut in this case \u2014 where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families \u2014 I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This demand is in stark contradistinction to Biden\u2019s response to Congress\u2019 actions in 1992 that forced railroad workers back to work under similar circumstances.<\/p>\n

In 1992, US railworkers went on strike for just two days before Congress intervened and passed a back-to-work bill, ending the stoppage. Biden was one of just six senators to vote against<\/a>\u00a0the legislation,\u00a0saying<\/a>, \u201cWe need to restore a measure of balance to these negotiations. . . . I am not convinced that we should act to reward the actions of the railroad companies at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Biden\u2019s efforts to crush the potential rail strike may not just prevent workers from winning their most basic demands or strip him of his\u00a0claim<\/a>\u00a0to be the most pro-union president in American history.<\/p>\n

The move will also indicate to other industries covered by the RLA, such as the airlines and the nonunion shipping behemoth FedEx<\/a>, that they don\u2019t have to negotiate with their workers in good faith, because the president will step in at the last minute to protect them.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Build Families Back Better?<\/h2>\n \n

Biden is asking Democrats to use their precious final weeks with a governing trifecta to crush railworkers\u2019 efforts to win paid sick leave, rather than passing their own proposals to extend paid sick leave and other protections to US workers.<\/p>\n

After Biden\u00a0issued his statement<\/a>\u00a0Monday calling on Congress to pass legislation imposing the tentative agreement, Democratic leadership quickly fell in line. Pelosi\u00a0said Tuesday<\/a> that the House would vote this week on such legislation, and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed<\/a>\u00a0to work with Republicans to pass it swiftly in the Senate.<\/p>\n

That kind of urgency has otherwise been lacking in the waning days of Democrats\u2019 control of Congress, as the window closes to pass more of Biden\u2019s promised agenda.<\/p>\n

Schumer has not held a vote on the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, legislation that would make it far easier for workers to form unions \u2014 even though forty-eight of the fifty members of the Senate Democratic caucus have publicly supported<\/a>\u00a0the measure. House Democrats passed the bill in March last year.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Politico<\/em>\u00a0reported this week<\/a>, Schumer has also repeatedly sidelined legislation that would extend more job protections to pregnant workers, and if the Senate fails to vote on it before Republicans gain control of the House next year, the popular bill likely won\u2019t be enacted in the near future.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another bill that would mandate at least seven annual paid sick days at workplaces with fifteen or more employees, reintroduced in April 2021, remains stuck in committees in both the House and the Senate. The so-called Healthy Families Act has been introduced ten times<\/a>\u00a0since 2004, but has never made it to the floor for a vote.<\/p>\n

Biden proposed including the Healthy Families Act in Democrats\u2019 social spending and climate package, known as Build Back Better, but the legislation failed under the weight of opposition from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).<\/p>\n

The version of Build Back Better that passed the House last fall included\u00a0four weeks<\/a>\u00a0of paid sick and family leave, but never got a vote in the Senate, thanks to Manchin\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n

While seventeen states<\/a> now mandate paid sick leave,\u00a0thirty-three million<\/a> American workers\u00a0remain without such protections. According to the\u00a0National Partnership for Women and Families<\/a>, 82 percent of voters support a national paid sick days policy.<\/p>\n

The lack of a federal policy currently prevents railroad workers even from enjoying state-mandated benefits.\u00a0In a precedent-setting July ruling<\/a>, a California appeals court found that federal law governing railroad workers preempted the state\u2019s 2014 paid sick leave law, after six railroad companies sued the California labor commissioner to avoid extending new benefits.<\/p>\n

In a statement\u00a0responding to Biden<\/a>\u2019s actions on Monday, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said it was \u201cdeeply disappointed.\u201d The Brotherhood, the nation\u2019s third-largest railroad worker union, called on \u201cPresident Biden and any member of Congress that truly supports the working class to act swiftly by passing any sort of reforms and regulations that will provide paid sick leave for all railroad workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n

You can subscribe to David Sirota\u2019s investigative journalism project, the\u00a0Lever<\/i>, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a labor dispute between railworkers and railroad companies barrels toward a nationwide rail strike, President Joe Biden is standing with railroad barons to force a deal on workers that not only falls far short of their demands, but also goes against Biden\u2019s own promises to grant reasonable paid sick leave to all Americans. The [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901922,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901775\/revisions\/901922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}