Biden says ‘you deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid’ in first picket line visit by sitting US president
Biden actually got the rail workers everything they asked for months after the strike ended. I had no idea about this until recently so figured I'd share.
Holy fuck, stop repeating this bullshit people. The IBEW voted for the original contract with 1 sick day. They're a small part of the railworkers and weren't one that wanted to strike in the first place. And they absolutely did not get everything they wanted. They wanted 15 days! Congress tried to give them 7! Biden got them 4. Nevermind the non-sick day asks.
Unions deserve the right to accept or reject their own contracts, not wait for a third party to decide what's reasonable.
Here's an article where strike leader Tony Cardwell, President of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way of Employee's division, explains that 4 sick days was the lowest offer they were willing to accept. I wish Biden did things differently in general, and they have every right to be unhappy and to push for further change, but Biden did actually work with them to get the minimum they wanted.
The minimum is not exactly worth an endearing compliment, though. But the situation is more complicated than just that Biden fucked over unions.