President Biden brought the parties in the negotiation’s to Washington DC…
The President had a non partisan panel, during a ‘cooling off period’, recommend a binding solution that Republicans would agree to…
But that would not pass in the Senate because Independent US Sanders blocked the deal…
It does appear that a work stoppage resulting in rail transpiration shutdowns are going to occur….
(Some have already begun)
This is gonna mean some people not working and some consumer goods not being delivered …
And?
This is NOT gonna play well for Democrats (Sanders ins’t one) and Biden….
Nor is gonna get Unions and Labor more friends…..
“Senate Democrats just blocked our bill that would have given railway workers a big raise and prevented a crippling strike and supply chain crisis. If a strike occurs and paralyzes food, fertilizer and energy shipments nationwide, it will be because Democrats blocked this bill,” he tweeted.
The Burr-Wicker resolution would adopt the comprehensive recommendations by the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), which Biden created to avert a strike. Those recommendations include significant wage increases retroactive to 2020.
Burr noted it would include a 24 percent increase in pay, annual bonuses of $1,000 and additional paid leave.
“This is the president’s bipartisan emergency board that he set up that came back with a recommendation to the Biden administration and said here is the solution to this. It should be adopted,” Burr said….
…
“Congress has intervened 18 times in the past, imposing PEB recommendations in whole or in part four times. If we don’t do it, if we do not force this issue, at 12:01 tomorrow night, the railroads will shut down, and the economic impact on the American people is $2 billion a day,” he said….
President Biden IS in a tough spot….
While he IS pro…Labor and Unions?
A extended disruption of the economy would probably be an economic and political disaster for Him and Democrats….
And Biden IS the President…Not a US Senator….
White House officials would not elaborate on what actions the president’s economic team had discussed, and it remains unclear what power Mr. Biden has to resolve issues that are largely under the purview of private companies.
Mr. Biden could push Democratic leaders in Congress to pass legislation that either extends the cooling-off period or forces unions and employers to accept contract recommendations issued last month by an emergency board established by Mr. Biden this summer.
But Mr. Biden is not former President Ronald Reagan, who famously ordered striking air traffic controllers back to work in 1981 and fired those who did not comply. He is, instead, fond of calling himself the “most pro-union president in history.”
“This is an issue that can and should be worked out between the rail companies and the unions,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Wednesday, adding, “not by Congress.”
Administration officials are making contingency plans for trying to minimize disruptions for critical shipments in the event of a strike. Those include working with trucking companies, ocean shippers and other alternative forms of transportation to ensure some supplies can still get to their destinations….
…
President Biden convened that board in mid-July, and it issued a report on Aug. 16, starting a 30-day period in which strikes, slowdowns and lockouts are forbidden.
The railways have said they are willing to accept the board’s recommendations, which included increasing nominal wages by 22 percent over five years and largely maintaining the status quo for health insurance benefits.
Most of the unions have also agreed to the proposal. But several unions, including two major ones that represent roughly half of the workers covered by the negotiations, are holding out for improvements to their sick leave and attendance policies, which they have described as “draconian.”…
There will be NO Rail Strike
Deal reached…
Post to follow