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Negotiations between rail companies and their unionized workers remain at an impasse. To head off a freight rail shutdown, President Joe Biden asked Congress to adopt the tentative agreement his administration negotiated between labor leaders and the rail companies — an agreement that has been rejected by the membership of four of the 12 unions, including the largest, because it lacked paid sick days for workers.
 

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement calling on the parties to return to the negotiating table instead of asking Congress to impose a deal on the hardworking men and women of the rail industry. 

• “Just because Congress has the authority to impose a heavy-handed solution does not mean we should. It is wrong for the Biden Administration, which has failed to fight for workers, to ask Congress to impose a deal the workers themselves have rejected.

• “I will not vote for any deal that does not have the support of the rail workers.

• “This whole episode highlights many of the ongoing problems in our economy. On the one hand, Wall Street’s drive for efficiency has turned rail workers into little more than line items on a spreadsheet. On the other hand, you have union leadership so disconnected from its rank and file that they struck a deal their members can’t support.

• “Instead of relying on Congress to carry their water, the parties should go back to the negotiating table and strike a fair deal that workers can accept.” – Senator Rubio