Union workers are lashing out at both political parties and President Joe Biden for the rail legislation signed to prevent a strike, calling the provisions a “slap in the face” to workers across the United States.
Biden signed the legislation on Friday after the Senate approved the rail legislation on Thursday. The legislation provides 24% pay increases, bonuses, and safety provisions — but only one day of paid sick leave.
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Railroad Workers United member Jeff Kurtz, a longtime member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and former Democratic state representative in Iowa, said Biden let him and rail workers down.
“It just seemed like a slap in the face to these guys,” Kurtz told the Washington Examiner of Biden signing the rail legislation. “They’ve been dehumanized.”
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Railroad Workers United expressed frustration in a press release, stating that they found it “despicable but not surprising” that both political parties “opted to side with Big Business over working people.”
The organization said the House’s labor contract let down railroad workers, as they should be able to bargain collectively and engage in strike activity if and when they see fit.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had also added a separate vote to include seven days of paid sick leave, which narrowly passed in the House but ultimately failed in the Senate, resulting in only one day.
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“Politicians are happy to voice platitudes and heap praise upon us for our heroism throughout the pandemic, the essential nature of our work, the difficult and dangerous and demanding conditions of our jobs,” RWU General Secretary Jason Doering said in a statement. “Yet when the steel hits the rail, they back the powerful and wealthy Class One rail carriers every time.”
The union called for railroad workers to seek other options, rather than the two political parties “since neither appears to have our back,” and come together to formulate a single railroad workers union.
Senate passage of the legislation put the country one step closer to avoiding a rail strike on Dec. 9, which would have cost the country approximately $2 billion a day.
Since the House approved the agreement separate from the paid sick leave provision, passage of the labor contract did not depend on whether senators voted for the House-passed paid leave.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Kurtz said Biden, who has fashioned himself as a pro-union president, can no longer claim that title and can expect to lose votes.
“There’s a lot of people out here that voted for him that after this might not be able to say the same thing again,” Kurtz said. “I’ve heard from other people that knock doors for Joe Biden, and you know, they really feel let down by this.”
However, Biden said during the signing on Friday that he understands the rail workers’ frustrations and that the “fight isn’t over.”
“I didn’t commit we were going to stop just because of — we couldn’t get it in this bill, that we were going to stop fighting for it,” Biden said. “I’ve supported paid sick leave for a long time, and I’m going to continue that fight until we succeed.”
