The following editorial originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times:
Approaching year three of a global pandemic, it’s shocking that the U.S. is still debating whether workers should be allowed to take time off work when they’re sick or need to see a doctor.
Yet sick leave was at the heart of a threatened railroad worker strike. Railroad companies and a dozen employee unions were at loggerheads for months; the main sticking point, particularly for the conductors and engineers who operate the trains, was the lack of guaranteed sick days so workers could take time off when they are ill, have medical appointments or family emergencies.
Congress on Thursday voted to block the strike by imposing a labor agreement on the railroads and unions — which had been tentatively accepted by the unions’ leaders — that includes pay hikes but no paid sick days. The Senate couldn’t muster enough votes to include seven paid sick days in the new agreement, as the House had done, meaning workers will continue to show up when they are ill or face disciplinary action.
This was a missed opportunity for the Biden administration and lawmakers to codify what should be a commonsense policy — American workers deserve guaranteed paid sick days. After more than two years of a pandemic, it should be clear that allowing workers to take time off when they are ill is not just a worker benefit — it’s a public health protection.
In September, the Biden administration helped negotiate a tentative contract between the railroads and the unions that included a 24 percent pay increase. Four of the 12 unions rejected the deal because it did not include paid sick days or address scheduling. The unions had planned to strike Dec. 9.
Afraid that a railroad strike could upend the already fragile U.S. economy and send consumer prices even higher, Biden urged Congress to use its power under the 1926 Railway Labor Act to block the strike. (The act gives Congress the authority to intervene in rail labor disputes that threaten to disrupt interstate commerce.) And that’s what happened last week.
Some lawmakers opposed intervening in a labor dispute, even though Congress has done it 18 times over the last century. Others said adding paid sick days would reward the workers who voted against the tentative contract, “gambling that they would secure a better deal from Congress.”
The railroad companies were able to gamble, too. The companies had less incentive to offer paid sick leave or make adjustments to their profitable, punishing schedules knowing that Congress would probably block the strike. Biden, too, made a calculated decision to prioritize avoiding a strike.
“Now, within this agreement, we’re gonna avoid the rail strike, keep the rails running, keep things moving, and we’re gonna go back and we’re gonna get paid leave — not just for rail workers, but for all workers,” Biden said Thursday.
That’s far easier said than done, as we saw last week.
