The House of Representatives today voted overwhelmingly to prevent a nationwide freight-rail strike. The vote was 290–137, and it adopted the tentative agreement that unions and railroads negotiated in mid-September under the supervision of the Biden administration with no modifications.
In a separate vote, the House narrowly approved a resolution to amend the tentative agreement to include seven days of paid sick leave, a bonus gift to the unions. That vote was 221–207, almost strictly along party lines.
Here’s how the House set up the votes. It first voted on a joint resolution, H.J.Res. 100, to adopt the tentative agreement negotiated by labor leaders and railroads under the supervision of the Biden administration in mid-September. That agreement had been ratified already by the memberships of eight of twelve unions and had been approved by a majority of the total number of workers who voted. Nearly all Democrats voted for the resolution, with only eight voting against it. Seventy-nine Republicans voted for it, with 129 voting against. (National Review this morning encouraged Republicans to vote for this resolution. You can read our full argument here.)
Next, the House voted on a concurrent resolution, H.Con.Res. 119, which amended the tentative agreement to include a provision about seven days of paid sick leave. It instructs the parties to negotiate how those seven days would be implemented. It says that if no agreement is reached on those details within 30 days, the matter will go to binding arbitration, which must be completed within 60 days of the resolution’s enactment. Unlike the first, the vote on this resolution was nearly partly-line, with only three Republicans voting in favor.
The second resolution is an effort by progressives to give organized labor a sweetheart deal that independent recommendations have already rejected. The presidential emergency board (PEB) that heard both sides’ arguments and released its findings in August concluded that sick leave should be left to negotiate at the local level, which is how it is currently arranged.
Workers currently receive a variety of different sick benefits depending on where they work and what position they hold, and the PEB said that the unions’ “overly broad and very costly proposal” to mandate a set number of sick days at the national level was not an appropriate way to address their concerns. Adopting the tentative agreement without amendment would still allow unions to negotiate sick benefits at the local level.
Both resolutions now go to the Senate, which is expected to act quickly. A strike becomes legal on December 9 if no agreement is reached before then, and disruptions to service could begin as early as this weekend for some shipments. Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) is stewing for a fight over sick leave, falsely repeating that all rail workers currently receive zero sick days. He blocked an effort by Senators Richard Burr (R., N.C.) and Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) to prevent a rail strike via congressional action in September, making the same complaints.
Republicans should ignore Sanders’s protestations and vote for the no-modifications resolution and against the sweetheart deal progressives are trying to push for organized labor.