By | Starrys Obazei | @ddnewsonline.com | Posted September 15, 2022

President Biden announced early Thursday morning that days of negotiations at the U.S. Department of Labor to avert a national rail strike, with potentially major implications for the economy, had yielded a deal, according to CBS. 

In a statement, Mr. Biden said the “tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people. It is a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years.”

Mr. Biden said U.S. rail workers would “get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned,” thanks to the agreement, which he said was “also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”

The deal will now go to the unions for a vote to finalize the agreement. The presidents of the unions representing rail workers said the breakthrough provides for “the highest general wage increases over the life of the agreement in over 45 years.”

“For the first time, our unions were able to obtain negotiated contract language exempting time off for certain medical events from carrier attendance policies,” the union chiefs said.