As the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation brokered by President Joe Biden denying freight rail employees any compensated sick leave, labor advocates implored the president—who called himself the "most pro-labor" president ever—to sign an executive order guaranteeing at least seven days of paid days off for illness to railroad and other workers.
The upper chamber voted 52-43 Thursday—eight votes short of the 60 needed for passage—for a House-approved proposal by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) to give rail workers seven paid sick days as part of a tentative contract being forced upon rail workers by Congress and the Biden administration under the terms of the Railway Labor Act of 1926 in order to avoid a crippling strike.
