While I understand the need to avert a rail strike, I’m extremely disappointed that the U.S. Senate passed legislation, brokered by you, that forces freight rail employees to remain on the job or be fired while voting down a companion bill that would have finally given them seven days of compensated sick leave.
I am writing you to now ask that you remedy this outrageous situation by signing an executive order guaranteeing at least seven days of paid days off for illness to railroad and other workers. This is within your power; Obama did something like it in in 2015, signing an EO requiring all federal contractors to guarantee seven paid sick days to their workers. Unfortunately he specifically exempted the rail industry from it, even though they are federal contractors. It’s your turn to fix this.
Please, unless you want to lose your self-designated “most pro-labor President ever” status, issue an Executive Order immediately stating that all federal contractors governed by the Railway Labor Act must extend 7 paid sick days, as federal contractors under the FSLA and other laws must. Thanks.
▶ First sent on December 2, 2022 by Jess Craven
