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Republicans with unlimited sick days deny sick days to railworkers

ED SATALIA

State College

The Republican Party claims to be big supporters of blue-collar workers, but their true colors showed when it came time to support those workers.

For almost a year, railroad unions and managers of the seven major railroads worked to come up with a new contract.

The major sticking point is that union workers have no paid sick leave.

What’s worse, if workers need to take off because of illness, or to see a doctor, they must use vacation days–and vacation days need to be scheduled, and approved, in advance.

In other words, if you’re a union railroad worker, you’d better be able to forecast the future, because if you’re going to be sick, you need to schedule your sick time in advance of getting sick.

The major companies even impose disciplinary measures if an employee takes off for a medical emergency.

As a result, union workers often delay needed medical care, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Last year, one union engineer who postponed a doctor’s visit because he hadn’t scheduled a vacation day for it died on the job of a heart attack a few weeks later.

To forestall a strike, House Democrats passed legislation giving union workers seven days of paid sick leave.

In contrast, nearly all House Republicans, who, by the way, receive taxpayer-funded unlimited sick leave, voted against the bill, supporting the seven major railroad companies who made $27 billion last year, nearly double their profits 10 years ago.

So much for Republicans supporting blue-collar workers.

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