The next question is … what if the rail workers went on strike anyway?
They could. But it would be illegal. John Brennan III, a former senior counsel for Union Pacific Railroad, told FreightWaves Washington correspondent John Gallagher in September that the rail companies could exert enormous pressure on striking laborers to go back to work.
“If Congress passes legislation it would immediately go to Joe Biden for his signature, and the minute he signs it, the unions would be obligated to end the impasse,” Brennan told Gallagher.
Workers have ignored such legislation in the past. But, as Brennan said, “[I]f they try that, the railroads can march into court and get an injunction from a federal judge ordering the union to go back. And if they defy that order, the unions could be hit with hefty fines.”
It might remind some of the 1981 “wildcat” strike of air-traffic controllers and President Ronald Reagan’s move to fire all 11,359 workers who went on strike in defiance of the White House’s orders to get back to work. Reagan declared a lifetime ban on those who went on strike.
(via Memeorandum)
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