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To Whomever Will Do The Right Thing,
This letter is in opposition to the proposed Railroad Strike Bill that will be brought before Congress tomorrow morning; there must be a provision for the health of Railroad Workers. Seven days of sick leave per year MUST be in the bill. These are 115,000 Americans that need one week per year to be human. You must protect their health, or you will forsake the health of our nation. I am frustrated that the party I voted for is not following through on the promise they made to the workers that support them and our economy. I am upset that the government would get involved at all, let alone on the side of corporations. I am infuriated that we as a nation are willing to trade the health of our citizens for the economy. I trust these people that consistently work much longer than 40 hour weeks are giving as much as they can; it is not right for corporations and governments to insist on more than they can give.
Have we learned nothing from the past 2 years? We shut down the economy for months and corporate profit margins soared. We sacrificed the health of our nurses, teachers, and truck drivers to the benefit of the top 1%. Now you can’t claw back 7 days of SICK leave for 100,000 people? Why does our economy depend on the invincibility of hundreds of thousands of people? Why does a week without chlorine mean Americans can’t access drinking water? Why is all of this being dictated by the wealthiest holding companies? Why does the support of 400 businesses outweigh the needs of 115,000 people?
Instead of asking all the questions that arise from this decision, I’ll ask just one; is this right? If the railroads are the backbone to our economy, then we shouldn’t work with a broken back. Instead of forcing your citizens to work themselves to death for our fragile economy and corporate profits, I ask you spend time actually solving the problem by any of the following:
Minimum sick day requirements for ALL companies
Nationalizing portions of the freight railway
Regional stockpiles of critical chemicals
Maybe I’m naive, maybe I still trust too much in our system, but I need to believe that we can fix this without making things worse. Forcing Railroad Workers back to their jobs under these conditions is not sustainable, and signals our government’s support for further erosion of workers’ rights. I hope that Biden won’t be another Reagan. I pray that we don’t repeat the tragedies of the Pullman Strike. And I beg that you protect the citizens that provide for America’s prosperity.