On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted to impose a labor agreement for rail workers. The measure now heads to President Biden to be signed.

It will include a 24% increase in wages over five years, more schedule flexibility, and one additional paid day off. But the measure doesn't include paid sick leave.

For the last three years, rail workers and national freight rail companies have been in contract negotiations around worker pay and paid sick leave.

In September, the Biden Administration brokered a tentative agreement between the groups.

But "tentative" is the key word there — the deal fell through.

"That tentative agreement included some pretty healthy financial increases, and did not include the paid sick leave that the unions have been asking for," said Liz Ford, a visiting assistant professor at the Seattle University School of Law and expert in labor and employment law.

After you reach a tentative agreement, the individual bargaining units have to ratify it.

In other words, the unions representing the rail workers and the freight companies they're negotiating with have to agree to the terms.

Most of the unions involved did — but not all of them.

"There are a handful that voted it down on the basis that it didn't include this sick leave. And by the time they did that, we're rolling into the holiday season. And those unions that voted no on the tentative agreement then were in a position to call a strike," Ford said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed...

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