President Joe Biden said Thursday a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a potentially devastating strike before the pivotal midterm elections.
He said the tentative deal “will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy.”
The Democratic president believes unions built the middle class, but he also knew a rail worker strike could have badly damaged the nation’s economy. That left him in the awkward position of espousing the virtues of unionization in Detroit, a stalwart of the labor movement, while members of his administration went all-out to keep talks going in Washington between the railroads and unionized workers in hopes of averting a shutdown.
But after a long night, the talks succeeded and Biden announced Thursday that the parties had reached a tentative agreement to avoid a shutdown that would go to union members for a vote. He hailed the deal in a statement for avoiding a shutdown and as a win for all sides.
“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.
It looked far more tenuous for the president just a day earlier.
United Auto Workers Local 598 member Ryan Buchalski introduced Biden at the Detroit auto show on Wednesday 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 sitdown 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 back in Washington, officials in his administration at the Labor Department were in tense negotiations to prevent a strike — one of the most powerful sources of leverage that unions have to bring about change and improve working conditions.
Without the deal that was reached among the 12 unions, a stoppage could have begun as early as Friday that could halt shipments of food and fuel at a cost of $2 billion a day.
Needless to say, food and gas prices skyrocketing as long lines, shortages, and suffering among those who could least afford the price hikes spreading nationwide would have most likely been the end of the Dems' chances in November.
But Biden got the deal done, and averting this rail strike and getting rail workers whet they deserved for keeping America running is a complete win for this administration, bar none.
Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, as Labor Secretary, just earned himself a StupidiTag™ with this one. He was instrumental in brokering the deal over a 20-hour session that was a total success.
I was a young kid when Reagan broke the air traffic controller's strike in 1981 in a move that almost completely crushed unions in the US. Now four decades later, Biden's successful treatment of rail workers may herald in a new era of union growth.
That's the Joe Biden I voted for.
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