[ "Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have yet AGAIN failed
working Americans by voting down seven days of paid sick leave for
rail workers," lamented Rep. Jamaal Bowman.]
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PUTTING ‘PROFITS OVER PEOPLE’, SENATE REJECTS PAID SICK LEAVE FOR
RAIL WORKERS  
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Brett Wilkins
December 1, 2022
Common Dreams
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_ "Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have yet AGAIN failed working
Americans by voting down seven days of paid sick leave for rail
workers," lamented Rep. Jamaal Bowman. _

,

 

SPEAKING ON THE U.S. Senate floor Thursday before votes on a trio of
bills affecting the nation's freight rail employees, Sen. Bernie
Sanders said
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one "simple question" to ask: "Are any Republicans prepared to stand
with rail workers who have zero paid sick days or are they instead
going to back the outrageous greed of the rail industry?"

Sanders (I-Vt.) got his answer a short time later when 42
Republicans—and serial Democratic obstructionist Joe Manchin of West
Virginia—voted down
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Jamaal Bowman's (D-N.Y.) proposal to include seven paid sick days in
the tentative contract being foisted upon rail workers by Congress and
the Biden administration under the terms of the Railway Labor Act of
1926 in order to avoid a strike that experts say
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cost the nation's economy $2 billion per day. The White House-brokered
tentative contract was previously rejected by more than half of the
nation's unionized freight rail employees.

Six Republican senators voted for the sick leave measure: Mike Braun
(Ind.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Josh Hawley (Mo.),
John Kennedy (La.), and Marco Rubio (Fla.). 

The senators also voted 80-15 to approve the contract supported by
President Joe Biden—who once called himself the "most pro-labor
president" in U.S. history—to force freight rail workers to remain
on the job under pain of termination. A third measure, which would
have extended the negotiation period by another 60 days, was rejected.

The Biden administration had urged
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to quickly legislation to thwart a potential strike by the nation's
freight rail employees, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
telling _CNBC_ Thursday that "there is no substitute in the American
transportation system for a functioning freight rail network," and
that a strike "wouldn't just bring down our rail system, it would
really shut down our economy."

Responding to the Senate rejecting his House-approved resolution,
Bowman tweeted
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"Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have yet AGAIN failed working
Americans by voting down seven days of paid sick leave for rail
workers."

"I'm truly disgusted by their inability to care about workers," he
added. "They continue to put profits over people and it's sickening."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said
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that "rail corporations have made money hand over fist, doubling
profit margins and spending billions on stock buybacks. It's shameful
the vast majority of Republican senators blocked essential rail
workers from receiving guaranteed paid sick leave."

Jeff Kurtz, former head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and
Trainmen, told _Common Dreams_ that "it's not only about paid time
off."

"I'm talking about time off, period," he said. "We've had people who
couldn't take time off to be with sick kids, with dying parents,
things like that."

Kurtz asked Republican senators to "look at the irony of a situation"
in which "the CEOs and the billionaires who run these rail outfits,
who espouse the ideas of capitalism, and who would be apoplectic if
the government came in and told them how to run the railroad" are
"running to the government" for help.

"They're actually asking the government to be the back-door HR
department of the railroads," he added.

Attorney and human rights advocate Steven Donziger called it
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that the U.S. rail industry—which made profits of $196 billion over
a decade—denies a paltry seven days of paid sick leave to its
workers."

"What's really 'sick' is a society that requires a right so basic to
be negotiated," he added. "Let them strike."

However, under the Railway Labor Act of 1926
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which critics have long condemned
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anti-worker, Congress can pass legislation forcing employees to stay
on the job.

AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler saw a silver lining in the "significant
wage increases and other important gains" in the tentative agreement.

However, Shuler said
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"it's deeply disappointing that 43 senators sided with
multibillion-dollar rail corporations to block desperately needed paid
sick days."

"Rail workers keep America's economy moving, yet rail companies treat
workers as essential one minute and disposable the next," she added.
"The unwillingness of wealthy corporations to provide workers with
basic dignity on the job got us to this point."

Sanders vowed after Thursday's votes that "this struggle is not over."

"At a time of record-breaking profits for the rail industry, it is
disgraceful that railroad workers do not have a single day of paid
sick leave," he said in a statement. "I will do everything I can to
make sure that rail workers in America are treated with dignity and
respect."

Responding to the Senate votes, Biden said that "working together, we
have spared this country a Christmas catastrophe in our grocery
stores, in our workplaces, and in our communities."

“I know that many in Congress shared my reluctance to override the
union ratification procedures," he added. "But in this case, the
consequences of a shutdown were just too great for working families
all across the country. And, the agreement will raise workers’ wages
by 24%, increase health care benefits, and preserve two-person crews."

Following the president's remarks, Kurtz told_ Common Dreams_ that
"Joe Biden is so far from pro-labor that he couldn't see it with the
James Webb Telescope."

_[BRETT WILKINS is a staff writer for Common Dreams.]_

_Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to
republish and share widely._

* RAIL WORKERS
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* railroad workers
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* railroads
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* sick days
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* paid sick days
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* corporate profits
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* Profits over People
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* Senate
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* Biden Administration
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* Bernie Sanders
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* Jamaal Bowman
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* Joe Manchin
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* GOP
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* republicans
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* Democrats
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* Railroad unions
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*
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