"Things are moving. We're moving in the right direction," the president claimed.
Regardless of his rhetoric, the truth is that railroad unions won't soon forget what Biden did. Members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division, the third-largest railroad union, have vowed to remember come election season, Fox News reported.
Clark Ballew, BMWED communications director, said that fellow members were keeping score, politically speaking. "You can damn well bet that railroaders took note of who stood with us and who failed to support the basic common decency of paid sick days," he said.
Union member Adam McKellips, who belongs to the SMART Transportation Division local 1289 chapter in Oklahoma, realized "we and our families are nothing but political pawns." "I work for a Class 1 railroad that implemented one of the most egregious attendance policies that requires us to be available to work 92% of the time per month," McKellips explained.
"If we take off one day for a sickness, we are required to [work] 14 days straight to gain points back." SMART-TD is the largest railroad operator's union.
"That is why we are fighting tooth and nail for sick days," McKellips added. He went on to say the bill "easily" could have addressed sick leave but that Democrats chose to "make a political stunt off the backs of the hardworking 'essential' rail workers."
Republicans aren't off the hook either, according to McKellips. "The Republican Party was never going to accept H. R. 119 in the Senate, and that also infuriates our union membership," he said. "Class 1 railroads have made record profits on the backs of workers through a pandemic, then implement the most egregious attendance policy to keep the 'essential' workers on duty to keep the profits coming in."
Biden and the Democrats count on the unions to vote for them no matter what. Now he's sold out them out for the sake of political expediency -- and they won't soon forget it.