A looming national rail strike was narrowly averted, after the Senate voted 80-15 to impose a bargaining agreement on intransigent unions. Brokered by the Biden administration, the deal includes an extra paid day off, along with a 24% pay raise through 2024. Eight of the 12 rail unions ratified it, but four voted it down.
After President Biden called on Congress to impose the agreement, the House voted to do so. But progressives also insisted on passing a second measure to rewrite the deal and add seven paid sick days. That failed in the Senate, 52-43.
Six Republicans voted yes, including Sen. Marco Rubio, who was elected as a free-market Tea Partier, but who long ago replaced his tricorn hat with a red Trump cap. Three of the six — Rubio, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — have designs on the White House. After Cruz voted yes, Bernie Sanders quipped: “I always knew you were a socialist.”
Some estimates say a rail strike could have cost the economy up to $2 billion a day. Based on an economic study, Biden said 765,000 people might have been thrown out of work within two weeks. He also warned that Americans “could lose access to chemicals necessary to ensure clean drinking water.”
Congress simply can’t allow one-third of the unions in one industry to hold hostage the economy and public safety. The Senate also rejected, 25-70, a proposal by Sen. Dan Sullivan to delay a strike for 60 days so the parties could keep negotiating. But at this point the rail talks have already gone on for three years. How would another two months have improved on the deal brokered by the Presidential Emergency Board? The priority was to keep the trains running.
Give credit to Biden for going against political type. He promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” and his wife belongs to a teachers union, the National Education Association, that does lifetime harm to millions of American students.
Railroad employees who wanted more will no doubt shout that they have been betrayed. But they had ample opportunity to exercise their right to collectively bargain, and the deal offers the generous raise, plus a freeze on healthcare co-pays and deductibles. Name another industry where the latter is true.
Biden had a choice: Side with the special interests of four recalcitrant rail unions, or do what’s best for millions of American workers and consumers in the broader economy.
He chose right. This isn’t a prediction, but if Biden wants it to be, this could be the start of his long-delayed turn toward the center. Why defend the Jones Act, which is protectionism for waterborne shipping at the expense of the climate and many industries? Why side with steel companies that want endless tariffs, when more jobs depend on using steel? Why side with K-12 teachers unions, instead of families that want a better education in charter schools?
OK, that won’t happen, but we can still dream, can’t we?
The consequences of a railroad strike were damaging enough to break through ideology, but if Biden wants to help his sagging approval rating, the same principle applies elsewhere.
The Wall Street Journal
