[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 184 (Wednesday, November 30, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6878-S6879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Railway Labor Management Dispute

  Madam President, let me move along to my second topic, which I hope 
can yield similar levels of bipartisan agreement, and that is support 
for our Nation's rail workers.
  Let me first state my strong support for freight rail transportation 
and the hard-working men and women who keep our Nation's trains--both 
passenger trains and freight trains--both rolling fine and running on 
time.
  This issue is personal to me, not only as someone who commutes on an 
Amtrak train most days to work here at our Nation's capital but as the 
grandson of a railroader. My grandfather was a fireman on the B&O 
Railroad in West Virginia for many, many years. My sister and I would 
love to listen to my grandfather tell us great stories about 
railroading in those days. I have had a love affair with trains ever 
since I was a little kid.
  Many of us know that freight rail keeps our economy moving. I didn't 
know that when I was a kid, but it does. It did then, and it does now. 
We don't often discuss that freight rail does so in a way that is 
better for our planet--better for our planet.
  Let me tell you what I am talking about. Moving freight by rail is 
some four times more fuel efficient than moving freight on the highway. 
I will say that again. Moving freight by rail is some four times more 
fuel efficient than moving freight on the highway. In fact, freight 
trains can move--think about this--1 ton of freight from Washington, 
DC, to Boston, MA--1 ton with 1 gallon of diesel fuel, 1 gallon.
  This morning, I rode on an Amtrak train with hundreds of people on 
board. The train was sold out, and we did it using no diesel fuel. We 
used electricity. A lot of it was generated by nuclear, offshore wind, 
and so forth.
  At a time when scientists tell us that we must dramatically reduce 
carbon dioxide emissions--and we must--in order to avoid the worst 
impacts of climate change, we can't afford to shut down the most fuel-
efficient way of moving freight over land in this country.
  Freight rail isn't just important for reducing emissions but also 
critical for keeping our economy humming. Our Nation's most trusted 
economists all agree that a rail shutdown would be devastating for our 
economy--devastating. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of them 
union workers, could be put out of work in just the first 2 weeks of a 
shutdown. And a shutdown could also leave many communities without the 
necessary chemicals for maintaining clean drinking water. That is why 
President Biden is calling on us in Congress to pass legislation 
immediately--not next week, not next month, immediately--to adopt a 
tentative agreement made in September.
  He did not come to this conclusion lightly and neither do I. 
President Biden is, by almost any estimation, the most pro-labor 
President we have had in my lifetime. Secretary Walsh is the first 
union leader to lead the Department of Labor in more than half a 
century. People think he was the former mayor of Boston. No, no, he was 
also the president of a major labor union in Massachusetts. Both of 
them are saying that Congress should intervene in supporting the 
agreement that 8 out of the 12 rail labor unions are supporting.
  The contract agreement that the Biden administration helped negotiate 
recognizes the importance and dignity of our Nation's rail workers. The 
deal provides a historic 24-percent pay raise for rail workers and 
improved healthcare benefits. Eight out of the

[[Page S6879]]

twelve unions involved in these negotiations think that is a pretty 
good deal, and they voted to approve the agreement.
  Still, we find ourselves in this scenario because railroad companies 
won't budge on granting railroad workers any paid sick days. That is 
wrong and something we should work to address but not at the risk of a 
devastating rail shutdown.

  My colleagues and I do not take lightly the notion that Congress is 
intervening in a labor dispute. We don't normally do that. In this 
case, there is a lot at stake. Today, our House colleagues passed 
legislation, I am told, to avert a rail strike. I think the vote was 
overwhelming--290 to 137. I am hopeful we will do the same in the 
Senate well before the December 9 deadline.