Railroad unions hopeful Biden will act to give workers paid sick time

Railroad workers are hoping President Biden will sign an executive order to provide them paid sick days.

The demand was at the heart of negotiations the past few months between the workers' unions and freight rail companies.

Congress stepped in to avert the strike but the legislation failed to include sick leave because it didn't have enough votes in Senate.

Friday, 70 democrats in congress signed a letter asking for President Biden to issue an order giving rail workers the seven sick days a year they were seeking.

The letter pointed out that both the House and Senate supported legislation to do so, with some nominal Republican support in both chambers along with nearly unanimous Democratic support. But the legislation failed because it didn’t get the 60 votes it needed in the Senate.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter from the unions’ congressional allies.

But officials with the rail unions said they have been talking to the administration about some kind of executive action to get them the sick time they’ve been seeking, and that they are hopeful action could be forthcoming.