US Senate votes to avoid rail strike: Update

Adds more context, comments.

The US Senate approved a bill to override union objections to a proposed rail worker contract, allaying the potential for a nationwide strike that threatened widespread economic disruption.

The Senate voted 80-15 to require unions to accept a rail labor agreement brokered by the White House in September even though the contract remains unratified by four of the 12 major unions that collectively represent over 100,000 US rail workers. The House of Representatives passed the bill yesterday.

Senate passage sends the bill to President Joe Biden, who said he would sign legislation to allay a strike that would have been set to begin on 9 December.

"This week's bipartisan action pulls our economy back from the brink of a devastating shutdown that would have hurt millions of families and union workers in countless industries," Biden said.

The White House had warned that a strike could spur 765,000 US job losses and "cripple the American economy" with shortages spanning virtually every segment of the US supply chain, ranging from gasoline and home heating fuels to fertilizers and retail goods.

"The Senate acted with leadership and urgency with today's vote to avert an economically devastating rail work stoppage," said Ian Jefferies, chief executive of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), a trade group representing major freight railroads.

The Senate voted down two amendments to the House rail bill. One amendment sponsored by senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) would have given more paid sick days to railroad workers, an issue that has been a key sticking point in the negotiations between the rail unions and the carriers. It would have matched a separate House-approved measure to raise the number of paid sick leave days to seven days from one day. Biden said he would seek future legislation to secure more paid sick leave for rail workers.

The other amendment would have required a 60-day "cooling off" period and sent the labor deal back to the parties for more negotiation. Republicans said Congress should not be placed in a position to arbitrate private industry labor deals. "We also don't want Congress to become the de facto end game for all future negotiations," said senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), one of the amendment's sponsors.

Congress has acted to avert rail strikes 16 times in the past, most recently in 1992, under the authority of the Railway Labor Act, which gives lawmakers broad authority to intervene in rail labor disputes. The last national rail labor strike was in 1991 and lasted less than 24 hours before then-president George Bush signed congressional legislation to end it.

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which lobbies for many US refiners, had warned that a strike would "throttle production and delivery of critical products such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and petrochemicals" at a time of high demand and low inventories.

By Chris Baltimore