EXPLAINER: What to know on Congress' bid to bar rail strike
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is asking Congress to intervene to avert a potentially crippling freight rail strike before Christmas and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling a vote this week to do so, even if it means handing a defeat to Democratic allies in the labor movement.
The legislation urged by Biden and being voted on Wednesday by the House would impose a compromise labor agreement brokered by his administration that was ultimately voted down by four of the 12 unions that represent about 115,000 workers at the freight railroads.
A look at Congress' options to intervene, the potential impact on consumers, and what happens next:
WHY DID BIDEN ASK CONGRESS TO ACT NOW?
In urging Congress to impose the deal that union leaders had agreed to in September, Biden pushed an aggressive option that would immediately resolve an impasse between freight railroads and the unions over paid sick leave that threatened a rail stoppage starting Dec. 9.
The other options included extending a cooling-off period to allow both sides to continue negotiating or forcing the parties to enter arbitration. Biden also could have urged Congress to impose a less generous proposal for workers that was issued by a presidential board of arbitrators in August. Or he could have proposed adding the sick time or other benefits unions have been asking for, but sweetening the deal for railroad workers at this point would have been a harder sell with Republicans.
The main reason for Biden to act now is that nearly every industry would be hurt by a rail shutdown and many commuters would be stranded as well. Railroads haul about 40% of the nation’s freight, and the railroads estimated that a rail strike would cost the economy $2 billion a day . Also, rail would begin to stop taking shipments of...
