Even as President Joe Biden was signing a congressional resolution imposing a strike-averting rail labor agreement Friday, unions opposed to the deal over sick leave provisions were strategizing for the next bargaining session.
Biden’s stamp of approval ends a yearslong collective bargaining process among 12 rail unions, which came to a head in September when negotiations came to a standstill. The Biden administration created a Presidential Emergency Board that on Sept. 15 crafted a contract proposal agreed to by rail companies and eight of 12 rail unions. That contract would be enacted with a congressional resolution cleared by the Senate on Thursday and signed by Biden on Friday.
The resolution makes a strike a federal offense and is to remain in effect until the unions’ next contract talks in two years.
