Biden CAVES to rail unions to avoid nationwide strike and hands out immediate $11k bonus and a 25% wage increase backdated to 2020 – amid fears industrial action would have cost $2b-a-day to economy
Biden said on Thursday that a ‘tentative’ deal has been reached between US rail companies and unions
It averts a potentially devastating strike costing $2B per day before the pivotal midterm elections
Biden hailed the deal for avoiding a shutdown and as a win for all sides
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that a ‘tentative’ deal has been reached between US rail companies and unions, averting a potentially devastating strike before the pivotal midterm elections.
The agreement, hashed out as a national rail strike loomed at midnight on Friday, will raise rail employees salaries 24 percent from the period from 2020 to 2024, with workers getting an average lump sum payment of $11,000 for the backdated portion of the raise, according to a group representing rail companies.
Biden called the deal ‘a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years.’
The tentative agreement must now be voted on by union members, but even if they reject it, a rail shutdown has been averted for several weeks due to the standard language included in such a deal, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
If if the strike had gone ahead, it would have cost an estimated $2 billion a day in economic disruption and sparked chaos for hundreds of thousands of travelers.
Pressure had been growing on both sides to reach a deal, with national rail operator Amtrak canceling passenger routes in anticipation of disruption as farmers and retailers warned of supply chain chaos.
But members of Biden’s administration kept talks going in Washington between the freight railroad companies and unionized workers in the hopes of averting such a devastating shutdown.