Senate Votes to Impose Contract on Rail Workers, Rejecting Paid Sick Leave

The Senate has approved a bill imposing a new union contract on tens of thousands of rail workers and prohibiting them from going on strike. Just 15 senators voted against the legislation Thursday. It requires some 60,000 freight rail workers who’d previously rejected tentative union contracts to keep working or face termination. Senators rejected an amendment to extend bargaining by another 60 days. Another measure, which would have added seven paid sick days, failed to break a filibuster after 42 Republican senators and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin opposed it. Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders spoke from the Senate floor ahead of Thursday’s vote.