作为铁路货运公司和代表工人的工会联盟离潜在的罢工越来越近美国国会就是否以及如何干预劳资纠纷爆发了冲突，这可能对已经受到高通胀和衰退压力打击的经济产生毁灭性影响。
共和党参议员罗杰·威克(Roger Wicker)和理查德·伯尔(Richard Burr)周一提出了一项决议，通过实施总统紧急委员会(PEB)的非约束性建议，来阻止代表10万多名员工的行业工会的罢工。
在8月份提交的一份五年计划中，董事会建议铁路工人加薪24%，追溯到2020年，每年奖金1000美元。除了两个主要工会外，所有参与的工会都与铁路公司达成了协议，但这两个团体表示，计划外休假或病假仍然是一个症结所在，也是一个困扰着劳动力短缺行业的问题。
这一僵局给工会在国会的政治盟友带来了一个重大问题，主要是民主党人，他们捍卫工人反对铁路公司，铁路公司通过历史悠久的新冠肺炎疫情获得了创纪录的利润。
周三，密西西比州参议员威克和北卡罗来纳州参议员伯尔试图强行通过他们的决议，但遭到了自称为民主社会主义者和著名工会支持者的佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯的阻止，这表明如果国会采取行动避免罢工，立法者之间可能会发生冲突。
“如果火车停止运行，我们的经济就会停滞不前，”威克警告说。“我们最不需要的就是关闭国家的铁路服务，包括客运和货运，然而这就是我们在不到一天半的时间里所面临的:一场大规模的铁路罢工，这将几乎关闭我们的经济。”
伯尔提到了一项评估，即在一次罢工中，“美国人民的经济影响是每天20亿美元。”
“在这个国家收获的季节，有16万列车的农产品……他们在运煤。他们运输汽油。他们运输石油。他们运输制造企业所需的氦气等气体，”伯尔说。“他们拖运汽车零部件，这意味着你会看到关闭的汽车组装厂。”
桑德斯反驳道，“我们正在谈论一个利润率在过去20年里增长了近两倍的行业。国会应该做的不是通过伯尔-威克法案，强迫铁路工人在可怕的工作条件下回去工作。我们应该做的是告诉铁路行业的首席执行官们，‘尊重你的工人，而不是蔑视他们。’"
“现在是时候让国会站在工人一边，而不仅仅是大型跨国公司的负责人。铁路工人有权为可靠的时刻表而罢工。他们有权因带薪病假而罢工。他们有权为安全的工作条件而罢工，”桑德斯说。“铁路工人有权为体面的福利而罢工。伯尔-威克法案将剥夺工人的基本权利。”
事实上，2021年，美国最大的铁路公司报告了来自疫情的创纪录利润。
伯尔在给参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)的一封信中表示，他可以保证48名共和党人将与柳条一起支持他的决议，这表明只有两名共和党议员在50人的会议上不支持它。
为什么国会参与其中
铁路和航空业被视为对美国经济至关重要的行业，从能源到农业等主要行业，铁路和航空业的所有劳资纠纷都受20世纪20年代的联邦法律《铁路劳动法》(RLA)管辖。
在经历了几十年有时是暴力的工人罢工后，当美国人开始依赖许多行业，特别是农业和制造业时，国会颁布了这项法律。
《RLA》旨在保护员工组织工会和集体谈判的权利，这是美国第一部这样做的联邦法律，并确保及时解决任何劳资纠纷。它规定了此类争端的条款，包括当各方进入“紧急”阶段时，正如他们现在所做的那样，以及当总统必须任命一个委员会来试图推荐解决方案时，尽管这些解决方案对所有各方都没有约束力，但旨在帮助各方达成解决方案。
在这种情况下，许多工会接受了PEB的建议，以避免罢工，尽管桑德斯指出，工会中的实际工人尚未投票批准这些措施。
根据RLA，如果铁路劳资纠纷双方在周五上午12点01分之前没有就新合同达成协议或延长当前的冷却期，铁路可以强制实施自己的工作规则，或者员工可以罢工，或者两者兼而有之。
在这一点上，RLA将不再设置行为的条款。相反，如果要避免长期的劳工危机，只有国会和总统乔·拜登有权采取行动——就像过去发生的那样。
但民主党党鞭迪克·德宾敦促工人不要依靠国会来解决争端，并警告说，随着最后期限的临近，立法者可能无法足够快地干预。
“我认为，认为我们可以很快就解决罢工问题达成协议，并在参议院获得60票的支持是幼稚的。这需要做更多的工作，”德宾周三表示。“但我认为给铁路公司和工会的信息是完成工作。不要指望国会。自己动手。我们认为他们已经很接近了，他们必须理解这种紧迫感。”
Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Richard Burr, and Sen. Roger Wicker arrive in the Capitol via the Senate subway, May 24, 2012.
比尔·克拉克/CQ-点名公司
根据宪法商业条款的授权，国会自1991年4月以来一直没有投票结束铁路罢工——在罢工后不到24小时。当时，立法者批准了一项联合决议——乔治·h·w·布什总统在半夜被从床上叫醒，签署了这项法案——迫使争端各方进入为期65天的有约束力的仲裁程序。如果工人们不同意仲裁条款，国会要求接受总统紧急委员会不太慷慨的解决方案。
然而，上一个例子是在30多年前。在这种激烈的党派环境下，距离关键的中期选举不到60天，工会通常会大量涌现，民主党人-通常是支持工会的-希望铁路谈判取得成功，不需要国会。
“我们都希望谈判能继续下去，这样就不会有罢工，我们正和劳工部长坐在一起。众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)周三表示:“国务卿马蒂·沃尔什(Marty Walsh)一直非常希望我们能够达成一项决议。“主要的分歧是工人没有病假，这是个问题。”
佩洛西对记者说:“我宁愿看到谈判获胜，这样国会就没有必要采取任何行动。”。
As railroad strike grows closer, congressional Dems hope for compromise -- and not to have to act
As freight railroad carriers and a coalition of unions representing their workersmove ever closer to a potential strike, a clash has erupted in Congress over whether and how to intervene in a labor dispute that could have devastating effects across an economy already buffeted by high inflation and recessionary pressures.
Republican Sens. Roger Wicker and Richard Burr on Monday introduced a resolution to stave off a strike by the industry's unions, which represent more than 100,000 employees, by imposing what had been non-binding recommendations from the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB).
In a five-year plan presented in August, the board had recommended a 24% pay raise for rail workers retroactive to 2020, with $1,000 annual bonus. All but two of the major unions involved have come to an agreement with the railroad companies, but those two groups have said that unscheduled time off or sick leave continues to be a sticking point -- and one that has dogged an industry beset with labor shortages.
The impasse presents a major problem for the unions' political allies in Congress, largely Democrats, who defended workers against the railroads, which have made record profits through and heading out of the historic COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, in a sign of the potential conflict to come between lawmakers should Congress act to avert a strike, Sens. Wicker of Mississippi and Burr of North Carolina tried to force their resolution through -- only to be blocked by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, the self-described democratic socialist and prominent union supporter.
"If the trains stop running, our economy grinds to a halt," Wicker warned. "The last thing we need is shutdown of the nation's rail service, both passenger and freight, and yet that is what we are facing in less than a day and a half from this moment: a massive rail strike that will virtually shut down our economy."
Burr noted one assessment that, in a strike, "the economic impact to the American people is $2 billion a day."
"This is 160,000 trainloads of agriculture product at a time of harvest across this country … They haul coal. They haul gas. They haul petroleum. They haul gasses like helium that are required for manufacturing businesses," Burr said. "They haul auto parts, which means you're going to see auto assembly plants that shut down."
Sanders shot back, "We're talking about an industry that has seen its profit margins nearly tripled over the past 20 years. What Congress should be doing is not passing the Burr-Wicker resolution and forcing railroad workers back to work under horrendous working conditions. What we should be doing is telling the CEOs in the rail industry, 'Treat your workers with dignity and respect, not contempt.'"
"It's time for Congress to stand on the side of workers for a change and not just the head [sic] of large multinational corporations. Rail workers have a right to strike for reliable schedules. They have a right to strike for paid sick delays. They have a right to strike for safe working conditions," Sanders said. "Rail workers have a right to strike for decent benefits. The Burr-Wicker resolution would take the fundamental rights away for workers."
Indeed, in 2021, the nation's largest railroad companies reported record profits coming out of the pandemic.
Burr, in a message to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who must determine what bill to bring to the floor, said he could guarantee 48 Republicans would back his resolution with Wicker, suggesting only two GOP lawmakers did not support it in the 50-member conference.
Why Congress is involved
All labor disputes in the railway and airline industries -- which are seen as critical to the U.S. economy, stretching across major industries from energy to agriculture -- are governed by a 1920s-era federal law known as the Railway Labor Act (RLA).
Congress enacted that law after decades of sometimes violent worker strikes and when Americans had grown dependent on many industries, particularly farming and manufacturing.
The RLA is intended to protect employees' right to unionize and collectively bargain -- the first federal law to do this in the U.S. -- and ensure timely settlement of any labor disagreements. It dictates the terms of such disputes, including when parties enter an "emergency" phase, as they have now and when a president must appoint a board to try to recommend solutions, though those are non-binding on all parties but are designed to help each side to reach a solution.
In this case, many of the unions accepted the PEB's recommendations to avoid a strike, though Sanders has noted that the actual workers in the unions have yet to vote to approve the measures.
Under the RLA, if the parties in the rail labor dispute do not reach agreement on a new contract or extend the current cooling-off period by 12:01 a.m. on Friday, the railroads can either impose their own work rules or employees can strike -- or both.
At that point, the RLA would no longer set the terms of behavior. Instead, only Congress and President Joe Biden would be empowered to act -- as has happened in the past -- if a longer-term labor crisis is to be averted.
But Democratic Whip Dick Durbin has urged workers not to lean on Congress to resolve the dispute, warning that, as the deadline looms, lawmakers may not be able to intervene fast enough.
"I think it is naive to believe that we could just quickly come up with an agreement on settling this strike, enacted in the Senate which requires 60 votes. It takes a lot more work than that," Durbin said on Wednesday. "But I think the message to the railroads as well as the union is get the job done. Don't count on Congress. Do it yourself. We think they are close, and they've got to understand the sense of urgency."
Congress, acting with authority from the Constitution's commerce clause, has not voted to end a railroad strike since April 1991 -- less than 24 hours after a walkout. At the time, lawmakers approved a joint resolution -- with President George H. W. Bush being roused from his bed in the middle of the night to sign the bill -- that forced the parties in the dispute into a 65-day binding arbitration process. Had workers not approved the terms in arbitration, Congress mandated that less generous solutions from the Presidential Emergency Board be accepted.
Still, that last example was more than 30 years ago. In this bitterly partisan environment, and less than 60 days from a crucial midterm election when unions typically turn out in large numbers, Democrats -- typically pro-union -- are hoping that railway negotiations are successful and Congress is not needed.
"We're all hoping that negotiations will continue so there is no strike, and we're at the table with the secretary of labor. Secretary [Marty] Walsh has been very much hoping that we can get a resolution," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. "The main area of disagreement is there is no sick leave for the workers and that's a problem."
"I would rather see negotiations prevail so that there's no need for any actions from Congress," Pelosi told reporters.
