After three years of negotiations, it’s time for a resolution.
In a statement today, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation to avert a rail strike. Biden requested that lawmakers “adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators — without any modifications or delay — to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.”
The “Tentative Agreement” is the deal that the administration helped broker in September. It adopts the recommendations from the Biden-appointed presidential emergency board and includes some additional concessions to unions on the issue of sick leave.
The railroads had agreed to make contracts with all twelve unions covered by national bargaining based on that deal. They kept their word and made agreements with eight unions, but the other four, including two of the largest, rejected the deal during ratification votes by union membership. Ratification from all twelve is required to avert a nationwide rail strike.
That middle part, “without any modifications or delay,” is key, and it’s the right thing to do. Later on, Biden says:
As a proud pro-labor President, I am reluctant to override the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement. But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt millions of other working people and families – I believe Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal.
Some in Congress want to modify the deal to either improve it for labor or for management. However well-intentioned, any changes would risk delay and a debilitating shutdown. The agreement was reached in good faith by both sides.
Unions have moved the goalposts numerous times throughout the negotiation process, which has now lasted three years. The carriers have gone to great lengths to accommodate them, but unions have continued to act like the victims. The carriers finally said they were done and would go no further than the September tentative agreement.
In demanding that Congress resolve the dispute, Biden is bucking organized labor, which did not want Congress to get involved. He is also explicit about overriding the demands from two of the largest unions to continue negotiations. For that, Biden should be commended.
Now, it will be up to Democrats in Congress to pass the resolution required to avert a strike. Last time a resolution to this effect was proposed, it came from Republican senators Richard Burr (N.C.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) and was blocked by Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). As recently as Friday, Sanders was demagoguing about Warren Buffett’s wealth in arguing for concessions to labor that are not included in the tentative agreement that Biden is calling on Congress to pass.
Sanders is not a Democrat and does not seem to have moved on the issue. He could just as easily block the resolution this time as he did last time, which would then require 60 votes to pass in the Senate. Given Biden’s statement today, though, Democrats at that point would likely supply enough votes to make Sanders’s objection moot.
After three years of negotiations, it’s time for a resolution. The deal Biden is calling for Congress to pass was agreeable to unions and carriers alike, and it would avert a rail strike that would be disastrous for the American economy. Republicans and Democrats should drown out any far-left dissent that may arise and pass it as soon as possible.