A bill to grant railway workers seven days of paid sick leave faces an uphill battle in the Senate after it narrowly passed the House on Wednesday.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to avert a strike after labor unions and rail companies could not agree on improved benefits for workers. Eight of the 12 unions signed on to a tentative agreement that increased pay by 24% and secured bonuses, but paid sick leave became a sticking point and ultimately derailed talks.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday announced the House would vote to force the labor unions to abide by the agreement after President Joe Biden called on Congress to act, prompting pushback from progressive members who insisted that workers deserved better than the one day of paid sick leave allocated in the legislation.
HOUSE VOTES TO AVERT RAIL STRIKE, SENDING LEGISLATION TO SENATE
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pledged to block the tentative agreement from advancing if better sick leave was not put up for a vote.
Pelosi announced Tuesday night that a separate vote would be held that, if passed, would grant workers the seven days demanded. The following morning, the tentative agreement easily passed the House, but the sick days measure barely cleared the chamber.
Only three House Republicans voted for the paid leave, signaling that the bill will have a tough time in the upper chamber, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster.
The Senate is expected to take up the legislation as soon as Thursday.
A handful of Senate Republicans expressed sympathy for the rail workers and even said their demands were understandable.
“The demands coming from the rail workers, on their face, seem quite reasonable,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told reporters Tuesday before Pelosi announced a separate vote on paid sick leave. “And so, I’m skeptical of the Democrats’ efforts to reject reasonable requests that the rail workers are putting forward.”
Cruz’s comments echo those of Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), who criticized Biden for looking to Congress to force the labor unions’ hand.
But many Republicans, wary of government intervention in the private sector, are hesitant to step into the labor dispute, and it’s unclear if there are 10 Republican votes for the paid leave, assuming all 50 Democrats vote for the measure. Centrist Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he’s undecided on the addition of paid sick days.
Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that it’s “hard to say” if the GOP votes are there. He acknowledged that the conference is divided.
“We have members that are — I’d say we have very diverse views and opinions on the subject, running the gamut from ‘This isn’t something Congress should be doing in the first place’ to the other end of the spectrum, where folks think that if we are going to do this, then Sanders’s provision ought to be included in it,” he said.
Multiple senators have said it’s not the role of Congress to nitpick over the labor deal.
“Congress’s role is not to help negotiate a rail settlement — it’s to approve one. You don’t need 535 arbiters negotiating the details of a labor agreement,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said Wednesday.
Hawley said he plans to reject the tentative agreement but vote for the seven days of paid sick leave. Cruz did not commit to the paid leave provision on Wednesday when asked if he would support it.
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After the House bills passed, Sanders joined 11 other Democratic senators in calling for the Senate to pass the lower chamber’s legislation quickly.
“We thank President Biden and Labor Secretary Walsh for their hard work in negotiating a tentative agreement that is better than the disastrous proposal put forward by the rail industry. But Congress can and must make this agreement better,” they said in a statement.
