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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a strike that could have been devastating to the economy before the pivotal midterm elections.
Railroads
and union representatives had been in negotiations for 20 hours at the Labor
Department on Wednesday to hammer out a deal, as there was a risk of a strike
starting on Friday that could have shut down rail lines across the country.
Biden made a
key phone call to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at 9 p.m. as the talks were
ongoing after Italian dinner had been brought in, according to a White House
official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to
discuss closed negotiations. The president told the negotiators to consider the
harm to families, farmers and businesses if a shutdown occurred.
What
resulted from the back and forth was a tentative agreement that will go to
union members for a vote after a post-ratification cooling off period of
several weeks.
“These rail
workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind
around their health care costs: all hard-earned,” Biden said. “The agreement is
also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit
more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of
the American economy for decades to come.”
The strike
would also have disrupted passenger traffic as well as freight rail lines,
because Amtrak and many commuter railroads operate on tracks owned by the
freight railroads. Amtrak had already canceled a number of its long-distance
trains this week, and said the rest of its long-distance trains would stop
Thursday ahead of the strike deadline.
Following
the tentative agreement, Amtrak said it was “working to quickly restore
canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first
available departures.”
The
five-year deal, retroactive to 2020, includes the 24% raises and $5,000 in
bonuses that a Presidential Emergency Board recommended this summer. But
railroads also agreed to ease their strict attendance policies to address some of
the unions’ concerns about working conditions.
Railroad
workers will now be able to take unpaid days off for doctor’s appointments
without being penalized under railroad attendance rules. Previously, workers
would lose points under the attendance systems that the BNSF and Union Pacific
railways had adopted, and they could be disciplined if they lost all their
points.
The unions
that represent the conductors and engineers who drive the trains had pressed
hard for changes in the attendance rules, and they said this deal sets a
precedent that they will be able to negotiate over those kinds of rules in the
future. But workers will still have to vote whether those changes are enough to
approve the deal.
The threat
of a shutdown had put Biden in a delicate spot politically. The Democratic
president believes unions built the middle class, but he also knew a rail
worker strike could damage the economy ahead of the midterms, when majorities
in both chambers of Congress, key governorships and scores of important state
offices will be up for grabs.
That left
him in the awkward position on Wednesday. He flew to Detroit, a stalwart of the
labor movement, to espouse the virtues of unionization, while members of his
administration went all-out to keep talks going in Washington between the railroads
and unionized workers.
As the
administration was trying to forge peace, United Auto Workers Local 598 member
Ryan Buchalski introduced Biden at the Detroit auto show as “the most union-
and labor-friendly president in American history” and someone who was “kickin’
ass for the working class.” Buchalski harked back to the pivotal sit-down strikes
by autoworkers in the 1930s.
In the
speech that followed, Biden recognized that he wouldn’t be in the White House
without the support of unions such as the UAW and the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, saying autoworkers “brung me to the dance.”
But without
a deal among the 12 unions in talks back in Washington, Biden also knew that a
stoppage could halt shipments of food and fuel at a cost of $2 billion a day.
Far more was
at stake than sick leave and salary bumps for 115,000 unionized railroad
workers. The ramifications could have extended to control of Congress and to
the shipping network that keeps factories rolling, stocks the shelves of stores
and stitches the U.S. together as an economic power.
White House
press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking aboard Air Force One as it jetted
to Detroit, said a rail worker strike was “an unacceptable outcome for our economy
and the American people.”
Biden faced
the same kind of predicament faced by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 with coal and
Harry Truman in 1952 with steel — how do you balance the needs of labor and
business in doing what’s best for the nation? Railways were so important during
World War I that Woodrow Wilson temporarily nationalized the industry to keep
goods flowing and prevent strikes.
Union
activism has surged under Biden, as seen in a 56% increase in petitions for
union representation with the National Labor Relations Board so far this fiscal
year.
With the
economy still recovering from the supply chain disruptions of the coronavirus
pandemic, the president’s goal was to keep all parties so a deal could be
reached. Biden also knew a stoppage could worsen the dynamics that have
contributed to soaring inflation and created a political headache for the party
in power.
Eddie Vale,
a Democratic political consultant and former AFL-CIO communications aide, said
the White House pursued the correct approach at a perilous moment.
“No one
wants a railroad strike, not the companies, not the workers, not the White
House,” he said. “No one wants it this close to the election.”
Sensing
political opportunity, Senate Republicans moved Wednesday to pass a law to
impose contract terms on the unions and railroad companies to avoid a shutdown.
Democrats, who control both chambers in Congress, blocked it.
The economic
impact of a potential strike was not lost on members of the Business
Roundtable, a Washington-based group that represents CEOs. It issued its
quarterly outlook for the economy Wednesday.
“We’ve been
experiencing a lot of headwinds from supply chain problems since the pandemic
started and those problems would be geometrically magnified,” Josh Bolten, the
group’s CEO, told reporters. “There are manufacturing plants around the country
that likely have to shut down. ... There are critical products to keep our
water clean.”
By 5:05 a.m.
Thursday, it was clear that the hard work across the government, unions and
railway companied had paid off as Biden announced the deal, calling it “an
important win for our economy and the American people.”
AP writer
Josh Funk contributed.