Freight train cars sit in a Norfolk Southern Corp. rail yard in September in Atlanta. Photo by Danny Karnik/The Associated Press.
A process outlined in a 96-year-old law governing railroads led to a bill signed Friday by President Joe Biden that imposes a contract agreement between workers and railroads.
Biden and Congress relied on the Railway Labor Act and a 1917 U.S. Supreme Court decision for the authority to pass the measure. It increases wages by 24% from 2020 through 2024, includes an extra paid day off and increases schedule flexibility. But it includes no paid sick leave, the New York Times reports here and here.
The Railway Labor Act, passed in 1926, is intended to avoid disruptions to interstate commerce, according to the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute of Congress. At first, the law governed labor relations between railroads and workers but was expended in 1936 to include air carriers and their workers.
Under the law, the National Railroad Adjustment Board handles minor disputes involving grievances or the interpretation or application of railroad labor agreements. The National Mediation Board handles major disputes, including disputes over changes to rates of pay, rules or working conditions. Disputes before the National Mediation Board are governed by requirements for bargaining and mediation.
The president is notified if the National Mediation Board determines that a dispute could “threaten substantially to interrupt...
Although on appeal the court distinguished that there was new information in the claim, the court ultimately found the new information was not material, nor was it plead with particularity. The U....