Bernie Sanders Blocks Republican Bid to Avert Rail Strike in Senate

[867-5309.]

Last edited Thu Sep 15, 2022, 07:58 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Bloomberg

Senate Republicans failed in a bid to force labor unions and railroads to resolve a fight over contract negotiations, ahead of a strike that threatens to paralyze much of the US rail system.

Republican Richard Burr sought unanimous consent for a resolution that would force the two sides to accept the recommendations of a presidential emergency board established by President Joe Biden. That would require agreement from all senators, and Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, objected, arguing freight rail workers need better sick leave.

"In less than 48 hours, at 12:01 Friday morning, the likelihood is without action by Congress, there will be a strike and rail traffic will stop," Burr said.

The legislative attempt underscores the rising urgency among policy makers to prevent as many as 125,000 workers walking off the job if an agreement isn't reached by the Friday deadline. The Biden administration has been working to avoid a strike that threatens supply chains and is estimated to cost more than $2 billion a day...

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/bernie-sanders-plans-block-republican-211035136.html

---

Update: It worked beautifully! Settlement was reached the morning of September 15, 2022. There wasn't a settlement imposed on the union. Thank you, Bernie!

[elleng]

1. 'freight rail workers need better sick leave.'

[Moosepoop]

3. They need sick leave, period.

There is no such thing as sick leave for rail workers. It doesn't exist for them.

Being out sick or having a doctor appointment, etc., causes disciplinary action.

They work long hours, and are always on call. Sick leave is a necessary and deserved benefit, IMO.

[elleng]

5. Senator Sanders reason for blocking was 'better' sick leave.

[Moosepoop]

7. No, that's the media's framing of his position.

Was this reason he supposedly gave reported in quotation marks? No? Why do you suppose that is?

If you'd line to read his actual words, here they are: https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2022/09/14/prepared-remarks-sanders-objects-republican-resolution-aimed-harming-rail

Some key passages:

The key issue in the current negotiations are not about salaries. They are about the working conditions in the industry which are absolutely unacceptable and almost beyond belief.

Right now, if you work in the freight rail industry – one of the most grueling and dangerous jobs in America – you are entitled to a grand total of zero sick days. Let me repeat that. You are entitled to a grand total of zero sick days.

What that means is that if you get sick, if your child gets sick, if your spouse gets sick and you need to take time off of work not only will you not get paid, you actually could get fired. And that is precisely what is happening today in the rail industry. How absurd is that?

Further, I should add, that quite sensibly the federal government guarantees 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to its workers. So if you are an employee at the Department of Transportation in the United States, sitting behind a desk, you are appropriately guaranteed 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. But if you are engineer running a train with tons of freight behind you, you get zero sick leave. That may make sense to somebody, it doesn’t make sense to me.

As a result of this reactionary policy of denying workers sick time, rail conductors, engineers and other rail employees are coming into work sick and exhausted - which is a danger not only to themselves but to their co-workers and everyone else who is around them.

M. President: As part of the contract negotiations, the rail workers are asking for 15 paid sick days. That is not a radical idea. We are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee paid sick days. In Germany, workers are entitled to 84 weeks of paid sick leave at 70 percent of their salary. In Norway, workers are entitled to one year of paid sick leave at 100 percent of their salary. In the UK, workers are entitled to up to 28 weeks of paid sick leave. The rail workers in the United States aren’t asking for a year of paid sick leave. They’re not asking for six months of paid sick leave. They are asking for 15 days. 15 days.

[orleans]

12. wow! i had no fucking idea about this--how disgraceful that those employees are

treated so carelessly -- so disgracefully.
thank you for the link.
i read the entire press release.

[Happy Hoosier]

28. AS I understand, there is now an agreement, but...

... I'd like some clarification on this. A lot of places (my work for example) do not have separate vacation and sick leave. Simply put we have a pot of Paid Time Off and if you are sick, you use PTO. You can run PTO up to two weeks into the negative if you need it but don;t have it on the books. After 2 weeks of being out, you can either continue to use PTO (if you have it), or shift to short-term disability, which pays 50% of your salary for up to 2 years. In addition, the company offers a supplemental insurance plan for a few bucks a month that covers the other 50% of your salary for up to 2 years.

So, I don't technically have "sick leave" but I like what I do have. I am curious of the details here.

[Rebl2]

10. The place

my sister works (architecture firm) is the same way. If you are sick, you use vacation days. Had a friend that was a nurse and it was the same for her office. My husband retired from USPS and while they had sick leave, you had to bring dr. letter at times or they got a disciplinary talk. My husband would just go to work sick or call in a vacation day. Thank goodness he retired several years ago.

[cstanleytech]

22. Its a benefit that every working person in this country should enjoy.

In fact I would love if all of the people in this country had at least 1 week (I would prefer no less than 6 weeks) of paid sick leave a year.

[James48]

2. Let them strike.

Yes, it will disrupt things.

But that appears to be the only thing they haven’t tried yet. Under the Railway Labor Act, the workers are entitled to take strike action on Friday.

Let the parties work it out themselves- even if that means workers have to strike.

And then- if they do strike-

DEMOCRATS SUPPORT STRIKING WOrKERS!


Solidarity.

[Moosepoop]

4. +1

I hope it gets resolved between the parties without a strike -- but if not, I SUPPORT THE WORKERS.

Solidarity.

[Deuxcents]

6. 👆

[iluvtennis]

16. + 2. n/t

[Liberty Belle]

8. Good for Bernie! He's always stood up for railway workers.

I can't think of another industry where workers don't have a single paid sick day -- time for that to change.

[Orrex]

9. We know how Reagan would handle this

Fire them all and send the country into a catastrophic downward spiral for 4+ decades so far.

[The Jungle 1]

27. That is exactly what reagen did.

I was working in a union shop at the time and could not believe we were not on the street.
reagan was a union buster.
Trickle down was a lie from day one.

[Puppyjive]

11. Trains are ticking time bombs waiting to go off

Yes, they are when you factor in crew fatigue. The workers get no time off. They come thru our towns and we all assume it is a well rested crew running the train. Well they are not well rested. They haul dangerous chemicals that can reach out in a derailment and kill anyone it it's path. We don't treat airline pilots like this. Good for Bernie for recognizing the plight of these men and women. Please support them. I grew up in a railroad family and became one myself. I was treated so poorly during my pregnancy that I went into premature labor. I.asked for light duty and they laughed at me. The hate I harbor for these companies runs pretty deep.

[canuckledragger]

19. I remember commercials back in the day of Reagan's war on drug users...

Where they tried to scapegoat train operators smoking pot for train derailments, rather than the companies' slave labour practices like this that led to overworked, overtired workers. (And the neglect of equipment for purely greedy financial reasons.)

[Gore1FL]

13. I worked for a class I railroad for over 14 years. They were a one-trick pony then. Now, too.

They were forever cutting costs rather than trying to figure out how to better utilize the resources it had.

It doesn't surprise me they have staffing issues; They ran light by choice across all departments long before the current crew shortages and other staffing issues.

[neverforget]

15. Cutting costs. God that's all they do. I worked for a Class 1 for 3.5 years

and I died on the law in the yard because they cut shuttles. That night/day (2300-1230hrs) I worked 13.5 hours because a shuttle couldn't get to us in time as they were getting crews off the road that had also died. The trainmasters were also shuttling crews. But hey, they saved some money on vans.

[Gore1FL]

21. My first couple of years, I mostly clerked through-freight work orders

At one point they were installing devices that allowed conductors to enter their work order data directly. At some level, that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is as they started to implement it they cut the clerk jobs. That left less of us to do jobs that hadn't been cutover and clean up the errors the not-yet-trained conductors were making kicking their way through the system that really wasn't ready to go.

We had a UPS container train waiting on the track for hours because of system problems. They wouldn't let me spin out the paperwork which would have taken about 5 minutes if I started with a trip to the bathroom.

Later I worked for the IT help desk. Every time we met our goals they cut positions.

I'm proud of my time there, but I am happy to not be doing it anymore.

[cstanleytech]

23. 99.999% of all staffing issues in this country that companies are having are issues

entirely created by the people running the companies and their decisions to shit all over on their workers.
Doesnt matter if its a rail company or a major grocery chain like Publix as they are all guilty of it.

[Bayard]

14. I'm with Bernie and the union

However, a whole bunch of Americans are only going to see more, and bigger, supply chain issues. Rethuglicans will have a field day, and just in time for the mid-terms.

[LeftInTX]

17. Yep, it's gonna be fugly

Very fugly. I'm very anxious about the whole thing
Gas prices will shoot through the roof
Electricity will go up...
Everything will go up, but alot
Covid tests and vaccine will be in short supply.

If Du'er s complain about lack of vaccines and tests, I'll just roll my eye.

You name it.

This nation runs on rails!

[Puppyjive]

18. Everything will be affected by a rail strike

You will see immediate affects from this rail strike. Fresh fruits and veggies will be scarce. Everything you can imagine has a connection to the railroads. They ship the raw materials that build just about everything. When they stop serving local industries, then those businesses will become casualties. The workers from those plants will become casualties. This is the busiest time of the year for railroads.
It's gonna hurt. But let me tell you how awful it is to never get time off. You don't get to see you family. You don't get a day off to work in your yard. You can't watch your kid play sports. It's really draconian.

[MichMan]

20. So Bernie believes the Presidential Emergency Board appointed by Pres. Biden is anti worker ?

[AntivaxHunters]

24. It was a Republican bill Bernie blocked.

[MichMan]

29. The bill would have given authority to President Biden's committee but required 100% consent

Article only said that it was Bernie that blocked it, not if any Democratic Senators were also opposed. Since it was settled anyway, it is a moot point

[867-5309.]

25. "Rail union groups say Presidential Emergency Board recommendations don't go far enough"

...Many union members had been hoping that the recommendations would lean more toward their requested wage increases and address working conditions, including attendance policies, more definitively. But instead, PEB’s recommendations tell the unions to go back to the bargaining table or withdraw the union proposals on matters related to working conditions or establishing a work-life balance, according to Railroad Workers United (RWU), an interunion caucus made up of members representing all crafts.

As a result, union leaders are caught between needing contract talks to progress in order to reach an actual contract and knowing that rank-and-file membership may not accept all the recommendations. The unions are expected to work with members to interpret PEB’s recommendations.

“On most of the important and pressing quality of work-life issues — the ones that probably matter the most in terms of job satisfaction, recruitment and retention of railroad workers — the PEB simply chose to kick the can down the road, remanding the carriers and the unions to reach an agreement, something the parties have not been able to do previously for two and a half years now,” RWU said...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/rail-union-groups-say-presidential-emergency-board-recommendations-dont-go-far-enough

[Voltaire2]

26. Nice try.

[AntivaxHunters]

30. Nice try?

No trying. Just doing.

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=YUFhCQpP0W8q2Wk_Ymeq3g

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=YUFhCQpP0W8q2Wk_Ymeq3g

[Just A Box Of Rain]

31. As a complete nonsequiteur, I notice that Sander's is wearing the trusty

Citizen Eco-Drive Riva wristwatch that he's sported for over a decade.

Instead of having the watch bracelet sized, Sanders seems content just to wear it halfway up his arm. LOL

Anyway, glad the Biden Administration brokered a deal. The workers need a good deal and a strike would have been costly on a lot of levels.

[FakeNoose]

32. Thank you Bernie Sanders - always sticking up for the working guys and gals

As far as I know, Bernie Sanders has always been pro-Union.