paid sick leave

The freight railroad CSX announced this week it had made a deal to provide paid sick leave to roughly 5,000 rail workers. The White House and lawmakers are pushing other railroads to follow suit.

With a strike looming, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation imposing a contract deal that four rail unions had rejected, citing its lack of paid sick days.

So far, three of 12 unions representing freight rail workers have rejected the contract deal brokered by the Biden administration in September. Those unions are holding out for paid sick leave.

The measure would affect 10,000 people in the city who work in private homes cleaning, cooking and tending children, among other duties. It proposed law would be the first of its kind in the U.S.

"I feel happy to have a job that is important," says a clerk in Portland, Ore. "But safe? No way!" A graphic artist relays the worries, pleas and pride from key workers on the pandemic's front line.

What if we renamed "sick leave" a "containment stipend"?