 Well, it looks like greedy rail corporations who have been exploiting their employees for years now are going to win in this overall dispute that could lead to a rail worker strike because of the Biden administration essentially forcing workers to accept a subpar deal that they're not happy with that most rail workers rejected. Now this is really I think a pivotal moment for the Biden administration because he has claimed that he's the most pro-union president ever but when push came to shove he sided with the exploitative corporations as opposed to the workers. So I want to give you a really robust picture of what's happening because it's very easy to get duped by propaganda because when we hear about the potential rail worker strike there's always this fear mongering about the economy and how destructive that strike would be and that's true we'll get to that in a moment here. But the blame it seems like mainstream media wants to blame workers exclusively when the blame if this strike does occur rests squarely on the shoulders of these corporations who are exploiting their workers and trying to do everything to increase profits to the detriment of their workers health and well-being. So basically rail corporations have slashed their workforce by 29% over the course of the last couple of years and they've increased profits and what have they done with that money. Well they've bought back their own stocks. Now in the event they were slashing their workforce and increasing benefits for existing workers that would be one thing I mean it's still pretty shitty because you're forcing workers to pick up extra slack because you're cutting costs but they're not doing that they're simply forcing their workers to do more also they can increase shareholder value all so they can make more money and get richer it's just corporate greed plain and simple and as a result of them doing this cutting the workforce not only have they destroyed the morale for their workers they've made them miserable they don't have sick leave they have been working so much hours that they don't even get to see their families and on top of that this has led to them exacerbating supply chain issues it's increased inflation so when corporations are doing this when their greed is getting out of control I think it's incumbent on the most pro-union president ever to rein them in but that's not what's happening here but before we get to that the Biden administration did intervene to try to broker a deal between the rail corporations and the rail workers but they decided to reject that deal because it doesn't address their core concern which has paid sick leave and an overall quality of life improvement because you can't keep working yourself to death and be happy like this is unsustainable but nonetheless these were the details of the tentative deal brokered by the Biden administration as the prospect explains the September tentative agreement included a 24% pay raise by 2024 annual $1,000 bonuses and no increases to health care costs looked at alone those specific details are worthwhile but at the heart of the matter are attendance policies previous reporting has detailed how railroad workers have suffered mental and physical health decay due to erratic scheduling which prevents workers from attending medical appointments union leaders originally wanted 15 days of paid sick leave after negotiations in September they settled for one sick day while removing penalties for time missed due to illness or medical emergency so that last point there is crucial they asked for 15 sick days and they got one in this tentative deal now at phase value it sounds great because they're getting a pay increase but not all worker rights issues have to do with pay the quality of their lives is what's at stake here and they're asking for better working conditions to where if they have to call in sick they're not going to be penalized and the penalties are seemingly going away but one sick day means that if you're out of work for more than a day your SOL your shit out of luck so ultimately they rejected this deal in these times explains the brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trainmen narrowly ratified the agreement with 53.5% of members voting in favor while the deal was rejected by just over 50% of train and engine service members of the sheet metal air rail and transportation workers transportation division smart TD smart TD joins three other rail unions that voted down the tentative agreement the BMW ED the brotherhood of railroad signalmen and the international brotherhood of boiler makers absent a new agreement the four unions that rejected the deal which together represent approximately 55% of the unionized US Rail Labor force are set to strike on December 9 the BLET and the other eight rail unions that already ratified the deal have pledged to honor the picket lines should there be a work stoppage the four unions poised to strike represent around 60,000 workers and if members of other rail unions refused to cross the picket line the number of those not working could rise to over 115,000 in other words while a majority of unions have accepted the deal well the smaller unions that rejected it represent the majority of rail workers so this is significant a majority of workers said no to this tentative deal that was brokered by the Biden administration now in the event they were to strike the media is correct that this would be catastrophic to the US economy it result in about 2 billion lost economic output per day and even affect US water supply as truth out explains but when you listen to the way that mainstream media pundits are talking about this they're putting the burden and the culpability on the workers because they just see oh they're getting a pay raise and they're rejecting this so they're the ones who are unreasonable not these greedy rail corporations who are forcing their workers to work even if they're sick and offering them no sick days or more than one sick day rather so I just want to give you a small example this is a quick clip this is an interview with Michael Baldwin he's the president of the brotherhood of rail race signalman and listen to the way that the CNN anchor frames the situation to imply that the rail workers are the ones being unreasonable here it is though these increases are higher than than most American workers national wage growth according to Bureau of Labor Statistics wages and salaries increased about 5% for the 12 month period ending September 22 this would 2022 does not meet all your demands but it's higher than most American workers are getting not everything has to do with money sure in most negotiations between workers and corporations yes the crux of their concerns is pay but in this instance they're saying we're working so much that we can't live we're missing doctors appointments because we don't have sick leave that's the crux of their concerns but CNN and other news outlets to be cleared this is just one example but a microcosm of a bigger issue they're essentially implying that if these workers do not accept this deal which doesn't meet their demands then they're the ones responsible for the potential economic destruction that a strike might cause it's not the corporations who have increased their profits who refuse to offer sick time to their own workers no it's the workers who are the ones who should be blamed that's the subtext if you read a lot of mainstream news articles about this now Biden obviously as president wants to see that the economy is not affected by this so he has an interest in making sure that a deal gets approved so what can happen here well as Brett Wilkins of common dreams explains under the railway labor act of 1926 which critics have long slammed as anti worker Congress can pass a joint resolution that would force employees to stay on the job by signaling such a measure labor advocates say Biden would be betraying his claim reiterated in Monday statement to be a pro labor presidents now what people don't know is that yes Congress does have the power to effectively force these workers to not strike and to accept the sub par deal even if they didn't agree to the terms but the Biden administration can also call on Congress to pass a bill that is more favorable to workers believe it or not they don't have to side with the corporations in this instance they can side with the workers and this is one of those instances where you absolutely should side with workers given the fact that these rail corporations absolutely can afford to give their workers sick leave as Bernie Sanders pointed out via Twitter last year the rail industry made a record breaking 20 billion dollars in profits after cutting their workforce by 30% over the last six years meanwhile rail workers have zero guaranteed paid sick days Congress must stand with rail workers furthermore Bernie Sanders majority staff director Warren Gunnell's ads it would cost 688 million dollars to provide 15 days of paid sick leave to rail workers and prevent a lock out that would cost the economy two billion dollars a day Buffett is the owner of BNSF rail and is worth 110 billion dollars so on its face 688 million dollars is a very large cost for a company and of course they're going to fight that but when you juxtapose that with the billions in profit that they made the the previous year how can you possibly say with a straight face that the workers are the ones being unreasonable here so this is a turning point for the Biden administration he has a choice to make will he side with workers or the greedy corporations were screwing over their own employees and you'd be shocked to learn that Biden chose to side with these corporations in a White House statement he's calling on Congress to adopt the tentative agreement that rail workers voted down adding that a majority of unions in the industry approved of the deal but leaving out the crucial fact that a majority of workers rejected the deal and in a statement by Pelosi's office she announced that the House will do just that with quote no poison pills or changes meaning that there's not going to be any improvements to meet the needs of workers and she also had the nerve to patronizingly refer to Biden as our proudly pro-union president after he royally screwed over rail workers at the behest of these greedy corporations it's just insufferable to me when you look at the details here this is an easy choice you don't side with these corporations if you want to stop a strike you side with the workers because their demands here are reasonable they just want quality of life improvements they want 15 sick days that's all that they're asking for and they couldn't get that and yet you're forcing them to accept a deal that isn't even meeting their most basic demands now why would the president who is supposedly the most pro-union president in American history side with these corporations well let's hear from Matt Weaver he's a rail worker and I think he put it best we've been noted that Congress could choose to force the railroads to accept an agreement more beneficial towards workers quote I'd like to see a lot of pressure from Congress on the carriers he said but they have a lot of money they lobby a lot and do some campaign finance work that we just can't afford so in other words because these rail corporations have all the money well in our capitalist system that also directly translates into them having all of the power as well now people may try to defend Biden and claim that you know he really had no choice his hand was forced here but he wasn't taking the stance before as more perfect union points out via Twitter in 1992 Senator Joe Biden voted against ending a major rail strike he argued that by intervening Congress would be rewarding the railroad companies for years of bad faith negotiation yesterday president Biden asked Congress to intervene to prevent a rail strike they continue as a senator Biden criticized intervention from Congress and the White House saying it assured the rail companies that the odds were stacked in their favor and confirmed the fears of rail workers and now decades later as president he's continuing to stack the deck in favor of these corporations against workers now let's get to some reactions here because expectedly workers were really pissed about this rail workers united tweeted this is a legacy defining moment for Joe Biden he is going down as one of the biggest disappointments in labor history labor reporter Jonah Furman writes full sell out from the White House for the majority of rail workers who rejected the deal the president brokered preemptively denying them the right to strike this was the which side are you on moment and the White House chose the railroad bosses railroad worker Ross Grooters writes when railroads refuse to give us sick time what they're saying is their profits are more important than their workers and the national economy hold the railroads accountable tell your elected leaders to give railroad workers the sick time they need or let them strike congressman Jamal Bowman writes if Congress is going to force rail workers to only have three scheduled unpaid sick days per year I think every congressperson should start the 118th Congress with three unpaid sick days that have to be scheduled 30 days in advance congresswoman AOC writes railroad workers grind themselves to the bone for this country as their labor produces billions for Wall Street they demand the basic dignity of paid sick days I stand with them if Congress intervening should be to have workers backs and secure their demands in legislation well said but it seems like the opposite is happening Joe Biden is calling on Congress to intervene to do with the corporations want and not give the workers what they desperately need which is paid sick time so I'll leave that there I'm not necessarily sure at this point in time if a strike happens but because Joe Biden is signaling that he will be intervening and is calling on Congress to intervene I'd argue that the strike is unlikely now although there is the possibility of a wildcat strike which is a strike not sanctioned by the unions but either way this incredible the story is incredible because it just demonstrates how when push comes to shove regardless of how tough presidents and Democrats talk they always end up siding with large multinational corporations with the billionaire class with the elites who screw over workers and it's just really disgusting you know it's not surprising but it still is disgusting nonetheless because we need at least one of the two major parties to at least side with workers a little bit but we can't even get tappet support for workers here and that's just really infuriating to me