WASHINGTON D.C., DC — On Friday, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that would make any strike railway workers go on illegal, after lengthy negotiations over a new contract.
The agreement raised workers' pay, but four out of 12 railway unions rejected it. They said that the proposed contract lacked sufficient paid sick leave. The final agreement provided one paid sick day per year, after a proposed amendment allowing a week of paid sick leave failed.
Both Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Bill Hagerty voted to approve that amendment. On the next vote, on whether to pass the resolution without the amendment, their votes split.
Hagerty voted against approving the resolution, while Blackburn voted to pass it.
She gave an interview to reporters before the vote about the dispute between railway worker unions and the railway employers.
"The majority of the workers approved this, some are still holding out because Joe Biden has said, 'I'm the most pro-union president in the nation's history,' and he's not going to challenge these unions. He's not going to push them," she said in that interview. "We're seeing this not only with the rail strike, but we're seeing it in the VA, we're seeing it with the SAIU ... He'd rather be popular than be respected and protect the U.S. economy and deal with these supply chains."
Biden said that he believed signing the bill was the "right thing to do" given the risks to an economy that is battling rising prices. He said he believes the contract avoids "what without a doubt would have been an economic catastrophe at a very bad time in the calendar."
WBIR reached out to Hagerty for a statement about the vote and had not heard back as of Monday evening.