What’s going on with the potential rail strike?

The federal government is trying to prevent more than 100,000 freight railroad workers from going on strike at the height of the holiday season.

At the urging of President Biden, the US Senate passed legislation on Thursday, December 1 that would force a tentative contract agreement between the rail unions and their employers. The deal, approved by the House Wednesday, calls for a 24% raise over five years, immediate payouts averaging $11,000, and an extra paid day off.

In a separate resolution addressing one of the workers’ primary demands, the House approved seven days of paid sick leave—a provision that failed to advance in the Senate.

The federal government’s intervention puts Biden and other pro-union Democrats at odds with some of their usual supporters in the labor movement. Todd Vachon, assistant professor at Rutgers University and director of the Labor Education Action Research Network in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, talks here about the dispute:

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