Strike on rail averted
Following the House’s approval of the legislation on Wednesday, the deal came together quickly in the upper chamber on Thursday with an 80-15 vote for the legislation’s passage.
This came amid an all-out effort to avoid potentially slowing down the supply chain and causing a significant blow to the U.S. economy ahead of the holidays. It now moves to President Joe Biden’s desk.
As Biden urged Congress to act on the impasse between rail workers and companies on Tuesday, the rush to pass the legislation occurred during a lame-duck session that was already jam-packed.
After a few unions rejected an agreement that was mediated earlier this year by the Biden administration, the dispute was in danger of leading to the first railroad strike in nearly three decades as soon as December 9.
The package includes a more generous health care plan in addition to a 24% pay increase over four years, which is the largest wage increase in half a century.
However, it does not include paid sick days, which the holdout unions said was unacceptable for a workforce that was sickened and killed by the pandemic.
