News & Commentary February 12, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/february-12-2023/

By Swap Agrawal

Swap Agrawal is a student at Harvard Law School.

In this weekend’s news and commentary, Sens. Sanders and Braun hold a press conference demanding at least seven paid sick days for rail workers, and CAPAC and the CBC endorse Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to be the next Secretary of Labor.

On February 9, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) held a joint press conference with rail workers to demand that carriers provide them with at least seven paid sick days. The senators were joined by representatives from SMART-TD, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, and the National Association of Chemical Distributors. Sen. Sanders mentioned the record profits of the railroad carriers and promised to question railway executives under oath in a Senate hearing if they did not “do the right thing.” “When I heard that you didn’t have a guaranteed sick day, I wondered how you could get by like that,” Sen. Braun said. The press conference can be viewed here. Sen. Sanders also sent a letter on Feb. 9 to rail company CEOs highlighting that the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWED) and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC) secured an agreement with CSX to guarantee paid sick days and encouraging other companies to follow their lead. The letter called out the rail companies for spending 184 percent more on stock buybacks and returns to shareholders than they did on their workers and showed that guaranteeing paid sick days would cost the companies less than 1.2 percent of their industry-wide profits.

FULL story at link above.