A historical precedent may have been set for railway workers all around the United States. In fact, 5,000 workers from CSX, a rail freight company active in the east of the US and southeastern Canada, will be provided with four days of paid sick leave per year.

This news comes after the US government failed to find a collective agreement to provide sick leave for railway workers. The 5,000 CSX workers who will be eligible for paid sick leave are members of two different unions. Almost 4,000 of them are part of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way, whereas over 1,000 belong to the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC).

A great initiative, but is it enough?

“This agreement provides four days of paid sick leave to be paid at 100 per cent of the employee’s rate of pay”, BRC pointed out. This policy will be retroactive to 1 January 2023 and will be applied every year from now on. Moreover, the workers will have the chance to change three personal days to sick days, have them paid as unused sick days, or have them contribute to their retirement plan (401k).

Despite being a positive step towards better working conditions, the majority of CSX employees will still not benefit from this initiative. As reported by the Jacksonville Business Journal, CSX employs over 15,000 workers who are not executive or administrative employees. This means that over 10,000 employees are still working without the possibility of taking paid sick leave.

On this note, Joe Hinrichs, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSX, claimed that “we are working to cultivate with all of the unions that represent CSX employees”. Moreover, in December, CSX announced that all employees would no longer be penalised for unscheduled absences for doctor’s visits. The company’s old policy, in fact, o entailed a points-based attendance system. In other words, workers are penalized with points for unscheduled absences, and risk being suspended or fired.

Rail workers VS US Government: a quick recap

Negotiations for a new collective agreement between the rail industry and the workers’ unions have started in 2019. Since September, however, the situation has precipitated and led to the US government blocking a nationwide strike. On 15 September, in fact, US President Joe Biden proposed a new agreement that included a 24 per cent wage increase over the next five years. On the other hand, the workers were asking for 15 days of paid sick leave per year.

Four unions out of twelve rejected Biden’s proposal and were threatening to go on indefinite strikes on 5 and 9 December. Negotiations kept on going poorly and a strike seemed behind the corner until US institutions intervened for the first time since 1991. The House of Representatives approved a bill to block the strike on 1 December. The very next day, the bill was signed off by the Senate and turned into law by President Biden.

Senator Bernie Sanders tried to intercede, submitting an amendment that included seven days of paid sick leave. The amendment was approved by the House but did not reach the majority needed in the Senate. In addition, in December, shareholders in two US railway companies demanded to implement paid sick leave as a standard perennial benefit. With these new developments, things seem to be moving again, although a clear course has not been drawn up yet.