The Senate has passed legislation that will force a “tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike.” Now that the bill has been approved it will go to President Biden. Biden has stated that he would sign the bill into law “as soon as Congress sends it to my desk.”
“I know that many in Congress shared my reluctance to override the union ratification procedures. But in this case, the consequences of a shutdown were just too great for working families all across the country,” Biden said in the statement.
The legislation, which was approved by the House on Wednesday, enacts new contracts providing railroad workers with 24% pay increases over five years from 2020 through 2024, immediate payouts averaging $11,000 upon ratification and an extra paid day off.
The rail workers wanted more paid sick leave, it has been the main disagreement between the railroads and the unions. Another measure would have added seven paid sick days to the contract, but it was defeated in the Senate vote.
The president of SMART-TD, Jeremy Ferguson, stated that some employees may quit if an agreement isn’t made.
“I keep hearing that some are going to do that. It’s always a possibility,” he said. “I hope that doesn’t happen. I want every member to stay employed and enjoy all the benefits that we do have and we are going to need more employees if we’re going to have adequate time off.”
President Biden wanted an agreement so quickly because both parties had only until December 9 to reach some sort of agreement. If they didn’t, workers said they would strike. If they did strike it could have cost “the U.S. economy $2 billion per day. Without an agreement, rail movement of certain goods was set to be curtailed as soon as this weekend in preparation for the strike.”
Source Fox News
