Originally Posted by
TED74
Hearing Congress is contemplating imposing the almost-passed TA plus a week of paid sick leave to sweeten the deal. That's not how most of us probably want the system to work, but it's plausibly a desirable outcome for a majority of affected workers. My understanding was that the absence of paid sick leave was perhaps the singular item missing from an otherwise passable agreement. Sounds like such an ending to negotiations would be a slight win for the economy and rail workers and a slight loss for management.
I highlighted the key sentence in your post. While the house did vote for a separate bill that adds some sick time, it is unlikely to be added to anything that the Senate would be willing to pass. But more importantly, if somebody is even remotely pro labor/union, this whole affair is a complete disaster. It ultimately destroys the principle of direct negotiations between a union and it's management. Even if Congress slightly improves the AIP, this is not how we want the process to work and ultimately makes our ability to strike look like a completely hollow threat. You can bet that Delta management and all the other airlines that are in ongoing drawn out negotiations are cheering this news. I don't think it's a coincidence that shortly after our strike vote, Ed felt the need to do a media blitz assuring people that we wouldn't strike and suddenly we had some movement on our talks. But now a democratic President and Congress, no less, are essentially telling Ed, "We got your back and if push comes to shove, we won't let them strike"