Long story short: tell our government to ensure that railway workers get paid sick leave, whether through Executive action or Congressional legislation. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.
The Lever’s December 7 report describes three ways our government could actually deliver paid sick leave to railway workers – first, with a President Biden executive order expanding paid sick leave for federal contractors to railroad workers. The Obama Administration, as you may recall, famously mandated paid sick leave for certain federal contractors, but left out railroad workers. The People United still helps you tell President Biden to issue that order; The Lever explains why a federal court might strike such an order down, but let’s at least fight that battle.
The Lever also says Treasury Secretary Buttigieg could force big railway corporations to offer paid sick leave to their workers by enforcing existing laws. Turns out when you force workers to be on-call on the time and never give them any time off, you create a lot of safety hazards! And the Railroad Safety Act of 2008 mandates that railroads come up with “fatigue management plans,” which sure would be a good place to address paid sick leave. The Biden Administration has given railroad corporations until mid-2023 to submit fatigue plans; in the meantime, communicating your will to Secretary Buttigieg would not be untoward. DOT has made this unnecessarily difficult, in my view; you could call (202) 366-4000 during business hours, or message Secretary Buttigieg on Facebook. (He’s also @SecretaryPete on Instagram and Twitter.)
Finally, The Lever instructs us that Congress could pass a paid sick leave law that would give all American workers paid time off. President Biden included four weeks of paid sick leave in the Build Back Better bill from 2021, but 50 Republican Senators plus Joe Manchin killed that plank; still, since giving workers zero time off is (surprise!) unpopular with the American people, now would be a good time to bring paid family/medical leave up again. Moms Rising still helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass paid sick leave legislation for all Americans. Seven paid sick days would have cost the railroads a piddling four days of profits, so they really have no damn excuse.
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