President Biden announced this morning that the rail industry and the workers’ unions had struck a tentative deal to avert a national rail strike. Such a strike would have crippled the economy and snarled supply chains.
Biden wanted to demonstrate that unions and management could work together, and they did.
“This agreement is validation of what I’ve always believed: Unions and management can work together, can work together, for the benefit of everyone,” he said in remarks in the Rose Garden.
Biden hosted the negotiators who brokered the railway labor agreement before his remarks.
“The negotiators here today. I don’t think they’ve been to bed yet,” Biden said.
The president called into the talks, which were being led by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Biden said on the call that a shutdown of railways was unacceptable, according to a White House official.
Biden, in his remarks, called the deal a win for America, as well as a win for rail workers and the dignity of work.“This agreement allows us to continue to rebuild a better America, with an economy that truly works for working people and their families. Today is a win, and I mean this sincerely, a win for America,” he said, thanking both business and labor for getting it done
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Looks to me like union brass sold out the membership. The biggest issue on the table was time off. Railroad workers are often required to work 7 days a week with no guaranteed sick or vacation time. If that issue isn’t addressed (which I don’t see evidence of), I can see the membership refusing the deal, even if that means wildcat strikes.
Since you don’t know the terms of the settlement, you are just being cynical and sour. You want Biden to fail.
The linked article said the terms. It mentioned a raise and certain healthcare terms. It mentioned nothing about time off, which was the central issue. Seems to me if that was part of the terms, it would have been included in the article.
This probably qualifies as “Russian propaganda” these days, but World Socialist Website generally has the pulse of worker’s issues from worker’s perspective: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/14/live-s14.html
Ah, dienne77, in a negotiation between two sides, that’s called compromise. A compromise often means that both sides do not get what they want.
Apparently the two sides in this negotiation decided whatever that compromise was, it was better than nothing or having President Biden do what Reagan did to the air traffic controllers.
Unless the railroad workers keep getting paid when they are on strike, how many of them would be able to afford maintaining whatever lifestyles they have? How many other jobs would be at risk if the economy collapsed?
Railroads like airports are essential infrastructure for our entire country. Risking a shutdown of one of this country’s essential infrastructure elements is like having a stroke or heart attack.
Here’s what President Reagan did to the air traffic controllers when they went on strike.
“On August 5, following the PATCO workers’ refusal to return to work, the Reagan administration fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life.”
“All in all, a strike could severely harm the U.S. economy and drive up inflation. The Association of American Railroads estimated a strike could cost the economy $2 billion a day.”
In 2020, approximately 135,000 people were employed by Class I railroads in the United States vs. harming the U.S. economy and a population of more than 330 million people.
Everyone of those 135,000 railroad workers is free to find another job if they don’t like the one they have. They are not slaves.
And before labor unions, those jobs were a lot worse than they are now. I know. I was named after my mother’s younger brother, Lloyd, because I was born on his birthday and Uncle Lloyd worked on the railroads all of his adult life.
My Uncle Lloyd started working for the railroads before there were unions. Uncle Lloyd died back in the 1990s at 96, but I heard his horror stories of what it was like before labor unions.
“Ah, dienne77, in a negotiation between two sides, that’s called compromise. A compromise often means that both sides do not get what they want.”
But there has been no agreement and no compromise. The union bosses sold out and agreed to exactly what the Presidential Emergency Board offered (which is what the railroad executives demanded) which the workers had already rejected – repeating the same offer isn’t a “compromise”. There is no agreement until it is ratified by the union membership, which it hasn’t been and likely won’t be.
How do you think the railway workers would have fared if Trump were president?
I couldn’t resist also answering this question meant for Dienne77. My additional answer will stick to the FACTS with a link to the source listing those FACTS.
“At every turn Donald Trump and his appointees have made increasing the power of corporations over working people their top priority. The list of the damage done to working people by the Trump Administration is long, and growing every day. Here are a few examples.
“Trump has encouraged freeloaders, made it more difficult to enforce collective bargaining agreements, silenced workers and restricted the freedom to join unions: …
“Trump has restricted overtime pay, opposed wage increases, and gutted health and safety protections: …
“Trump has helped insurers reduce coverage and made it easier for pharmaceutical companies to inflate drug prices:
“Trump has encouraged outsourcing and offshoring: …
“Trump failed to prepare the nation for the COVID-19 pandemic, opposes hazard pay for essential workers, and has given employers a free pass to lower safety standards: …”
This source also lists links to the sources used to report these FACTS.
https://cwa-union.org/trumps-anti-worker-record
I see nothing on the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) website that even hints at a settlement. There are three other posts on labor issues that were posted today, nothing about the upcoming RR strike.
When I hear it from the horses mouth I’ll believe that this “agreement” isn’t just a load of manure.
Duane, you are looking in the wrong website. This is the website of Conductors and Engineers:
https://ble-t.org/news/blet-smart-td-reach-tentative-agreement-with-railroads/
I copied the name of the union from the article from the Hill that you linked and came up with their website that had nothing about an agreement. This is what the Hill article had to say “Earlier this week, 5,000 railway workers at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted to reject a tentative contract agreement, authorizing a strike.”
So who really is the bargaining agent(s)?
All I know is that when the vote is taken we will then know if the negotiations “avoid railroad strike.”
Wow!
The Government governing.
What a concept!
Bringing everyone to the table.
No finger pointing, scapegoating, blame, or disgusting labeling of participants.
Giving credit to the participants and voice. Actually “Thanking both business and labor for getting it done.”
Not every other sentence starting with “I…” and not making it about the egomaniac leader.
Now, if only the GOP legislators and governors could just deal with all that instead of making it all about them, being silent, threatening to sue somebody, or labeling it as some ‘woke’ or ‘fake’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘conspiracy’ resolution.
(Man those people make me sick)
This administration is by no means perfect. But they get a lot of big ideas moving in the right direction. Too bad most Americans don’t understand the difference between campaigning and governing. And a time and place for each.
I sincerely hope they reach a deal. I was quite shocked to learn these workers did not have any paid sick leave. The tentative deal allows for only unpaid leave for medical procedures w/o any discipline. And only one paid day off for personal leave. And a wage increase. I guess it’s a step in the right direction. No idea if members will agree to this tentative deal.
Current policy for Freight Rail employees is 3 weeks paid vacation. 26 weeks paid sick time at 60% of pay and family and medical time off.
I wonder if the deal has certain flaws…but it’s a deal, evidently. Helped by a President who values cooperation over confrontation–what a concept.
It’s not a deal until it’s ratified by rank and file membership.
Your eagerness for Biden to fail is exceeded only by your hatred for Hillary.
Your willingness to believe whatever Biden/the Democrats/the establishment media tells you without looking any deeper is exceeded only by your hatred of Trump.
As for my hatred of Hillary, correct – for all the things she’s done (for instance, “We came, we saw, he died, BWAHAHAHA!”), including Pied Pipering Trump into the White House. I’d think you’d hate her for that too.
Maybe you forgot that you bad-mouthed Hillary all during the 2016 campaign. I asked if you worried about the Supreme Court under Trump. You didn’t care. I asked if you worried about Roe being overturned. You didn’t care. I asked you if you worried about Trump’s indifference to the environment. You didn’t care.
Let me be clear: I prefer Biden to Trump or DeSantis. I prefer any Democrat to any current Republican candidate.
I hope the rail workers got a good deal. I am very proud-union.
You’re darn tootin I “bad mouthed” Hillary Clinton. I stated my reasons, provided my sources and stand by everything I said to this day. Hillary is the reason we have Trump. She promoted him because she thought he’d be easy to beat and then lost to him. And that’s to say nothing of the primary shenanigans when polls showed that Bernie, not Hillary could have beaten Trump.
As for Roe, that was lost under a Democratic administration with a Democratic Congress after 50 years of Democratic inaction on codifying Roe despite numerous promises and opportunities to do so.
All of which is neither here nor there as the topic of this post is the alleged “deal” Biden has struck with the union bosses. We know exactly what the deal is – it was detailed in the wsws article I posted. It’s the same rotten deal they already rejected from the Presidential Emergency Board – sub-cost of living raises, higher share of healthcare costs, some vague language about being allowed unpaid time off for certain medical needs without penalty. Would you take that deal?
At the current time, there is no deal. I won’t predict the future, but judging from what I’m seeing I think there’s a good chance union rank and file will reject the deal and the strike will go forward, albeit probably a few days or weeks later. Honestly – and I know you’ll just say it’s because I want Biden to “fail” (I don’t – I want him to actually succeed at what he promises, not keep gaslighting us with deals that he pretends benefit the people but actually benefit the American oligarchs) – but I hope they do reject and strike. They can bring the railroad tycoons and many other greedy businesses to their knees if they stand strong and then they will be in an even better position to get their demands met.
When you bad-mouthed Hillary in 2016, you showed no contempt for Trump. Whatever Hillary’s sins, they pale next to his. She called him “Putin’s puppet” in a debate, and she was right. She is an intelligent woman and he is an idiot.
We will see how the workers vote. You take your news from far-left sources that I don’t read. I took mine from the website of the largest rail union.
You are correct dienne77 !
👍👍👍
Biden’s approval rating recently jumped from 36 to 45. Mar a Lago was Marred ‘n a’Raided by the FBI. Many of the new country songs coming out these days are about feeling lost in confusing times. The extreme right is on its heels. Invite them back to sanity with support for unions.
If they want more workers (or keep their current workers), companies need to treat their workforce with respect and remember they are human beings with families and personal needs. A decent wage and decent benefits are a must. Please, a little compassion here.
Terrific reflection today from Heather Cox Richardson on this topic, in her series Letters from An American:
Like many of the victories President Joe Biden has celebrated during his term, this deal was complicated, requiring the administration to bring together a number of moving pieces. In the 1980s and the 1990s, the U.S. railroad industry consolidated into seven main carriers, which are now making record profits. In 2021, profits for the two largest railroad corporations in the U.S.—the Union Pacific and BNSF—jumped 12% to $21.8 billion and 11.6% to $22.5 billion, respectively.
But those profits have come from cost-cutting measures that included job losses from an industry that had remained stable for the previous 25 years. Between November 2018 and December 2020, the industry lost 40,000 jobs, most of them among the people who actually operated the trains, as the railroads adopted a new system called Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR). This system made the trains far more efficient by keeping workers on very tight schedules that leave little time for anything but work. Any disruption in those schedules—a family emergency, for example—brought disciplinary action and possible job loss. Although workers got an average of 3 weeks’ vacation and holidays, the rest of their time, including weekends, was tightly controlled, while smaller crews meant more dangerous working conditions.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-15-2022?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Well, the devil’s in the details. It’s not clear if workers will vote yes. This seems like a modern day slave labor.
https://www.levernews.com/railroad-ceos-were-paid-over-200-million-as-workers-suffered/