After Congress forced rail workers and their management to agree to a labor contract and so avert an economically catastrophic rail strike, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is looking to take his battle for rail workers’ sick leave to the White House.
Sanders on Friday led more than 70 of his congressional colleagues in penning a letter urging President Joe Biden to take executive action to guarantee rail workers paid sick days. Vermont’s U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., signed on to the letter, while senior U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., did not.
“While this agreement was much better than the disastrous proposals put forward by the rail industry, it still does not guarantee a single paid sick day to rail workers who work dangerous and difficult jobs, have risked their lives during the pandemic to keep our economy moving and have not received a pay raise in over three years,” Sanders and his colleagues wrote. “That is unacceptable and must be rectified.”
Friday’s letter comes after the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly last week to force rail workers and management to ratify a labor agreement, averting a worker strike that experts worried could bring nationwide economic catastrophe at a time when the country is already wrestling with supply chain constraints and historic inflation.
Sanders fought for an amendment to the bargaining agreement that would have guaranteed rail workers seven days of paid sick leave. Currently, rail workers have none. In a final plea to his colleagues last week, Sanders said in a floor speech, “This is not a radical idea. It’s a very conservative idea.”
Ultimately, Senate Republicans, joined by West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, blocked the amendment, and the Senate voted on a version of the agreement with no paid sick leave.
The measure passed overwhelmingly, with even supporters of Sanders’ unsuccessful amendment voting “yes,” citing the potential economic implications of a strike. Biden promised to return to the issue of paid leave for not just rail workers, but all American workers.
“I think we’re going to get it done, but not within this agreement,” Biden said at a joint press conference last week, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, according to NBC News. “We’re going to avoid the rail strike, keep the rails running, keep things moving, and we’re gonna go back and we’re gonna get paid leave not just for rail workers, but for all workers.”
Sanders is now pushing Biden to keep that pledge sooner rather than later. Citing “terrible and tragic stories” of rail workers punished for taking sick time, Sanders and his colleagues wrote in Friday’s letter to Biden that, “As President, you and your administration have a number of tools at your disposal to make sure rail workers are guaranteed paid sick leave.”
“It is literally beyond belief that rail workers are not guaranteed this basic and fundamental human right,” they wrote. “Therefore, we urge you and your administration to do everything within your authority to guarantee rail workers the seven paid sick days that they desperately need through executive action.”
Also leading Friday’s letter were Democratic U.S. Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Donald M. Payne Jr. of New Jersey, and Cori Bush of Missouri.