300 business groups call on Biden to intervene in rail unions contract vote

By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN

Three hundred business groups are calling on President Joe Biden to intervene in the ratification of the national tentative agreement he helped broker last month between rail unions and US freight railroads.

In a letter sent to the president Thursday, retail, agricultural, manufacturing, and trucking associations jointly asked the president to ensure that the tentative agreement is ratified. The groups include American Trucking Associations, the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the National Retail Federation.

“It is paramount that these contracts now be ratified, as a rail shutdown would have a significant impact on the US economy and lead to further inflationary pressure,” the letter states.

On Wednesday, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen voted down the tentative agreement — with about 60% of rank-and-file members voting “no.” Earlier this month, another rail union, BMWED, also voted not to ratify the deal.

“There are concerns that others may follow. If that were to be the case, we could witness a strike that would shut down the entire freight rail system,” the businesses wrote.

The groups believe the President’s intervention could push the unions to vote for ratification, just as he emphasized the need to come to an agreement last month to avoid a nationwide US freight rail strike that would have brought the US supply chain and economy to a grinding halt.

Six unions have ratified that deal, two voted it down, and four have not held votes. Those include the two largest unions of engineers and conductors, BLET and SMART-TD. Their votes will be held in November.

The unions that have so far voted down the agreement, and any others that do so in the future, could still authorize a strike if they don’t come up with new agreements by November 19. That move would send all 12 unions to the picket lines, regardless of whether they ratified the deal.

Congress can take two actions to avoid such a strike: it can extend a cooling-off period during which the unions cannot strike, or impose a contract on union members.

Rank and file members from the two unions that voted down the deal are doing so because of the lack of paid sick time, according to their union leaders. Sick time is unpaid in the current tentative agreement.

The new contracts for all the unions include an immediate 14% raise with back pay dating back to 2020, and pay raises totaling 24% during the four-year life of the contracts, which run from 2020 through 2024. They also give union members cash bonuses of $1,000 a year.

All told, the backpay and bonuses will give union members an average payment of $11,000 per worker once the deal is ratified.

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