This week Congress got involved in a labor dispute between railway workers and freight corporations. Although most labor disputes don’t typically involve US legislation, in this case, an antiquated law regulating railway labor (which also includes airlines) turned an economic issue into a political one.

The Railway Labor Act of 1926 is one of the first labor laws passed in the US and was set up to regulate labor negotiations between unions and management. The law states that Congress and the President can mediate and avert a strike to prevent interruption to commerce and impending economic consequences for the nation.

Fearing economic disaster, President Biden pressured Congress to step in via the Act to push through a deal between unions and corporations to prevent a possible strike.

Because of the law, the House and Senate first voted to impose less-than-desirable contracts on four railway unions that rejected the terms of the original agreement which included only one paid sick day per year. Then, last Wednesday the House voted 221-207 to pass a concurrent resolution adding seven days of paid sick leave to the original contract (which President Joe Biden urged Congress to force through to prevent a nationwide rail strike this month). The amendment for additional sick days was proposed by Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (D-NY). Sadly, on December 2, the measure died in the Senate, defeated by a vote of 52-43. President Biden signed the bill the same day.

Why the conflict over sick pay?

In the last two years the rail industry has lost 40,000 jobs (about 30% of the workforce) due to cost-cutting measures, the effects of the pandemic, and uncertainties in US trade relations. In short, freight companies laid off workers, and those remaining in their jobs are stretched thin and are at the mercy of attendance policies that penalize them for missing work due to illness or family emergencies. The workers in this industry have some of the most egregious of work demands, and at the crux of the dispute were inflexible and demanding hours. 

“Abusive and punitive attendance policy is breaking apart families and causing locomotive engineers and other railroaders to come to work dangerously fatigued,” the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said in a statement last May. 

There are four major railroads, CSX (CSX), Union Pacific (UNP), Norfolk Southern (NSC), and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA)’s Burlington Northern/Santa Fe. All have reported record profits in 2021. The two biggest corporations, BNSF Railway, and United Pacific made a net profit of 6 to 6.5 billion dollars respectively, and Lance Fritz (CEO of United Pacific Corporation) received 14 million in compensation. 

Collectively, railroad corporations made over $20 billion in 2021, but they can’t offer seven days of paid sick leave to their employees.

Let’s face it, corporations are devoted to profits, not workers. It’s a shame that in this case, the one thing that gives workers power has been taken away from them in the form of an antiquated law: The right to strike.