Railroad unions press Senate on issue that barely passed the House

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Railroad unions that opposed a labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration are pressing the Senate to amend that deal to include seven paid sick days for rail workers after the House just barely agreed to that addition in a narrow vote.

The House easily passed legislation Wednesday to implement the labor deal that some unions rejected, a move that will require all unions to abide by that agreement and make it illegal for them to strike. Dozens of Republicans joined Democrats in that vote to mandate the labor deal, which would retroactively give rail workers a 24% pay raise and boost their health care benefits.

Unions still opposed to that deal are also seeking more time off for health reasons. In a nod to that demand, the House also passed legislation tweaking the deal to give them seven paid sick days. But that vote was much closer, 221-207, and just three Republicans supported that language.

That has unions worried that Republicans may not support language on sick days, and that it may not get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. While the Senate is expected to pass the main agreement, senators on Wednesday offered no indication how the separate vote might go on sick leave.

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Senate leaders are under pressure from rail unions to approve language giving workers more sick days. (Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images / Getty Images)

As a result, unions are working overtime to lobby the Senate.

"We absolutely are calling every Senate office," Clark Ballew, communications director for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED), told FOX Business. "All 23,000 of our members are calling their U.S. senators to urge them and implore them to add sick leave to this contract."

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BMWED is one of the four unions to oppose the original labor deal and is spearheading efforts to get the sick leave language approved in the Senate. Ballew said the group is working with other unions that opposed the deal and said senior leaders of those unions are in Washington now lobbying the Senate.

"The BMWED applauds the representatives in Congress and any senators that will stand in support of railroad workers receiving paid sick leave," the group said on its site. "The additional legislation needs to pass so that railroad workers will have basic protections against illness and protection from punishment from the railroads when workers are most vulnerable."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly called up a rail union bill and had it passed along with language expanding sick days for rail workers. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Another union that opposed the original deal, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, said passage of the sick leave language would be a step toward "rectifying a major omission" in the main agreement.

"We urge the House and the Senate to vote in favor of guaranteeing seven days of paid sick leave to rail workers," that group said. "A worker should not be fired for going to the doctor. Yet, it is 2022 and railroaders are fighting for sick leave in the richest country on Earth."

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The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), a large union with more than 200,000 members, opposes the idea of Congress stepping in but said passing sick leave is the best way out at this point.

"We ask these elected leaders to stand with our essential workers and urge the House and the Senate to vote in favor of guaranteeing seven days of paid sick leave to rail workers," SMART said.

On the other side of the issue are the rail carrier companies, which warned this week that a congressional grant of more sick days sets a bad precedent that could prompt other unions to push for involvement from Congress whenever they reach an impasse.

More than 100,000 rail workers were threatening to strike in the absence of a final union agreement. (Luke Sharrett for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"The ramifications of approving such a measure would disincentivize future voluntary agreements for freight railroads, Amtrak and airlines if a party in bargaining believes it can obtain a better deal from Congress than it could through good faith negotiations and the statutory PEB [Presidential Emergency Board] process under the Railway Labor Act," said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jeffries. "This ignores over 100 years of precedent and clearly usurps longstanding bargaining procedures."

The Senate is widely expected to approve the main labor agreement, but whichever way the Senate lands on sick leave, that vote will likely mark the end of the fight. Congressional involvement in rail union contracts is the final word on these issues, and any strike to protest a lack of sick days or any other issue would be an illegal strike.

Without any agreement in place, rail workers are expected to strike by next week.

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Rail union agreements are traditionally negotiated every five years, and the current battle for a new agreement has lasted for more than three years. That means new negotiations will start up again in just two more years.