Biden Administration, Congress Act to Avert National Rail Strike

With urging by the President, Congress moved to approve a measure to avert a potential rail strike that would have had almost certainly had severe negative impacts on the U.S. economy. By a bipartisan vote of 290 to 137, the House approved the measure, HJR 100, and sent it to the Senate. The Senate took up the measure with a 80-15 vote to approve on December 1. President Biden signed the measure into law on December 2.

The votes followed a change in Biden’s stance, expressed in a statement issued by the White House on November 28. Explaining his policy shift, Biden said in his statement, “I have pressed legislation and proposals to advance the cause of paid leave in my two years in office and will continue to do so. Every other developed country in the world has such protections for its workers. But at this critical moment for our economy, in the holiday season, we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny workers the benefits of the bargain they reached and hurl this nation into a devastating rail freight shutdown.”

The White House statement continued by calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt a tentative agreement between railroad workers and operators negotiated with support by the Administration earlier this year. That agreement includes a 24% pay increase and improved health care benefits for rail workers but did not include paid sick leave. The issue of sick leave had been a major sticking point in the negotiations, leading four of the twelve unions involved to vote against acceptance of its terms. The final bill passed by Congress and signed into law included one paid day of sick leave annually, far less than the seven days that some union advocates had previously insisted upon.

Had a rail strike not been prevented, the liquid terminal industry would have faced significant costs associated with managing delays and providing alternative arrangements for product movement where possible. A key example cited by terminal executives was the potential impact on ethanol. Ethanol, shipped almost entirely by rail, is required for gasoline blending to meet state and federal requirements. Many terminals provide ethanol blending services to their gasoline customers at terminals. A rail strike could have made it impossible to terminals to obtain and blend ethanol for the gasoline market. The situation had the potential to cause nationwide fuel shortages.

Earlier this year, ILTA sent a letter to the White House urging action to avert the rail strike. ILTA continues to communicate with Congressional offices in support of their actions to resolve the crisis.