Sick Leave for Rail Workers

For all the loudmouths out there saying Biden was strike busting when he invoked the provisions of the Railway Labor Act last fall in order that the economy wouldn’t crash before the election and to buy more time to work out sick leave for rail workers, there is sure is a lot of silence from the same people who understanding nothing about the RLA but do know that all Dems are always sellouts over the fact that rail workers have made enormous gains on their leave demands in the months since.

Most of the 115,000 rail workers in the US now have paid sick leave! Many workers are also getting safety improvements they have been fighting for for years. In December 2022, Biden and Congress voted to impose a contract on workers with no paid sick leave and took away their right to strike – a move that angered many socialists and other supporters of labor. How can workers get what they need when the right to strike has been taken away? And yet, rail workers have gotten these major wins. What happened and what more needs to be done?

Several factors for positive changes for railroad workers:

More attention to the issue following lobbying by rail workers and Biden’s imposed contract in December 2022

Efforts by members of Congress such as Senator Sanders and Representatives Bowman, Bush, and AOC

Bad press following the railroad catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio

Several states have recently passed regulations requiring at least two person crews on freight trains 

Rank-and-file organizing by railroad workers especially by RWU and BMWED

Many rail workers have been quitting their increasingly stressful and dangerous jobs –  to deter quitting and recruit replacements, rail corporations have improved some conditions

Now this is a pretty leftist site so there’s some of your typical, Dems didn’t really help stuff. But there’s another more important paragraph in this that everyone who was complaining about Biden’s move in the fall just have ignored entirely.

“A Rail Strike was never intended by Rail Labor leaders… never in the cards. Anyone with an appreciation of American Rail Labor History knows this.” This is according to Carey Dall, one of the founders of the BMWED rank-and-file caucus in his article “Rail Unions in the U.S. are in bad need of consolidation, democracy, and militancy.” He notes the years of preparation and strategizing needed to accomplish any successful strike which would “endangers interstate commerce.” None of the leaders of the 13 rail craft unions had lifted a finger to prepare for a strike in December. In fact, Dall in some ways places more blame on Rail Labor leadership than on Biden – let alone members of Congress.

There were some rail workers who expressed support for going on strike. But even some militant leaders of rank-and-file rail workers’ caucuses expected that the tentative agreement would be imposed by Congress.

Right–everyone knew Biden would do this! This was a predestined thing all the way, even after the very narrow strike votes in a few of the unions. Even the rail union leaders didn’t even bother actually preparing for a strike.

But again, actually knowing how the labor movement works instead of expressing your desire for revolution on unions that don’t even want that would be very un-internet left.