No agreement was reached in the contract negotiations of the railway workers in the USA. Workers authorized the unions to “strike,” but President Biden de facto prevented the strike by appointing a mediator by decree.
US President Joe Biden has announced a decree ordering the creation of a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to intervene in the collective bargaining dispute in the rail industry. Thus, the railway workers were prevented from taking a strike decision. Some of the railway workers had given the power to the unions by voting for a strike. However, it is stated that the union bureaucracy also supports Biden's decision.
INTERESTING MORE THAN 100 THOUSAND WORKERS
The announcement by the PEB, a type of federal mediation agency, also precludes a possible strike that more than 100 railroad workers could legally launch at 30:18 a.m. on July 12, when the 01-day waiting period expires, Wsws.org reports. Last week, 99.5 percent of the iron passengers who are members of the unions called Locomotive Engineers and Train Drivers Brotherhood voted to allow strike action.
Workers have been working without a contract for nearly three years and conditions on the railways are very bad. In recent years, thousands of workers have resigned, particularly because of the work schedule where the weekly working hour exceeds 70 hours. Workers state that they cannot plan family life and even arrange doctor's appointments because of the days they keep on duty 7/24. In addition, workers have not received a pay rise since the last contract expired, leaving them at the mercy of 9 percent inflation. Meanwhile, rail companies have made record profits during the pandemic.
“We should get a raise with inflation,” said a CSX rail company worker in the Richmond area: “These are by far the worst years of my career. People are leaving work like never before. Money is constantly stolen from us on our payroll. When we make valid requests, they take six months to refund us with no explanation. This is nauseating.”
Trade union bureaucracy deals with BIDEN
On the other hand, some unions have been criticized for collaborating with the Biden administration. An example is the International Port and Warehouse Union (ILWU) employing dockers for more than two weeks despite the contract expiring on 1 July. Both ILWU and port operators are reported to be holding daily talks with the Biden administration. In a joint statement released last month, the union announced that it did not intend to prepare for a strike.
Biden's decision was also supported by the Transportation Trade Department (TTD), which is affiliated to the AFL-CIO, the largest union confederation in the USA. TTD President Greg Regan said in a statement: “We commend President Biden for declaring an impartial arbitral tribunal to help both sides work towards a solution. It is sad, but not surprising, that after nearly three years of abusive negotiations by the railroads, we have come to this point in the bargaining process governed by the Railroad Labor Act. Frankly, the facts are on our side and we look forward to future recommendations from the arbitrators appointed by the president.”
ITS SOURCES FROM ANTI-WORKER LAW
According to the report, the PEB's legal framework comes from the anti-worker Railroad Labor Act, which aims to de facto abolish strikes by trapping workers in virtually endless rounds of mandatory negotiation, mediation and arbitration. First passed in 1926, the law itself was adopted as the result of a series of legislative attempts to prevent strikes in the industry following the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the first major industrial struggle in American history.
The law was passed just four years after the Great Railroad Strike of 10, in which 1922 workers and their relatives were killed. This act replaced the previous Transport Act of 9, which created a 1920-member Railroad Labor Board to ostensibly "mediate" in disputes between workers and rail companies. The trigger of the 400 strike, in which 1922 workers on the railways participated, was the Board's approval of the railway workers' wage cuts.
OBAMA MADE THE LAST PEB DECISION
According to government records, this will be the 1937th PEB collected under the Railroad Labor Act since 250. The last PEB convened for the national rail contract was in late 2011, during the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president. Obama appointed a board that accepted nearly all of the companies' requests. Pro-Democratic Party unions, on the other hand, expressed their satisfaction with the agreement reached.
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