Railroad unions decry Biden’s plan to block possible strike

OMAHA, Neb. — Railroad unions, on Tuesday, decried President Joe Biden’s call for Congress to intervene in their contract dispute, saying it undercuts their efforts to address workers’ quality of life concerns, but businesses stressed that it is crucial to avoid a strike, next week, that would devastate the economy.

Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers will be asked to vote, Wednesday, to impose the terms of the deals the 12 unions agreed to before an original strike deadline, in September, even though four of those unions representing more than half of the 115,000 rail workers rejected them. Eight other unions ratified the five-year deals that include 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses.

Biden said he reluctantly agreed that it would be best to override the union votes because the potential damage to the economy would be too great.

“Congress I think has to act to prevent it,” Biden said, Tuesday. “It’s not an easy call but I think we have to do it. The economy’s at risk.”

Unions and worker groups have been pushing to improve the demanding schedules they say make it hard for workers to ever take a day off and persuade railroads to add paid sick time. They have threatened to strike if new agreements can’t be reached before a Dec. 9 deadline.

“It is not enough to ‘share workers’ concerns,’ ” said the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division union said in a statement. “A call to Congress to act immediately to pass legislation that adopts tentative agreements that exclude paid sick leave ignores the railroad workers’ concerns.” The union is one of the four that rejected their deal.

The railroads that include BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern have refused to consider adding sick time because they didn’t want to spend any more on the labor deals than they agreed to, in September. They have also argued that rail unions have agreed over the decades to forego paid sick time in favor of higher wages and stronger short-term disability benefits.

Conductor Gabe Christenson, who is co-chairman of the Railroad Workers United coalition that includes workers from all the rail unions, said Biden and the Democrats are siding with the railroads over workers.

“The ‘most labor-friendly president in history’ has proven that he and the Democratic Party are not the friends of labor they have touted themselves to be,” said Christenson, whose group encouraged workers to reject these deals. “These wolves in sheep’s clothing have for decades been in bed with corporate America and have allowed them to continue chipping away at the American middle class and organized labor.”

Paul Lindsey, a longtime Union Pacific engineer based in Pocatello, Idaho, who is active with Railroad Workers United, said Congress and Biden seem to be sending the message that “your quality of life, your time off, your days, your standard of living doesn’t matter if you getting a pay increase is going to hurt business.”