Capehart: Rail Workers ‘Had No Leverage,’ and ‘Law Needs to Be Changed’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Washington Post Associate Editor and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart stated that the law allowing the government to prevent rail strikes must be changed because rail workers didn’t have the leverage that other workers do.

Capehart said that it’s good for the country that the strike was averted and that the strike had to be averted, “But the issues that the rail workers were about to strike over are not insignificant. Paid sick leave is something that they need to discuss. That’s something that is not an unreasonable ask, especially when rail companies are sitting on billions upon billions of dollars in profits last year. But the workers had no leverage, unlike, say, fast-food workers or other workers around the country, for whom a strike is that leverage point to get what they want and what they need.”

After New York Times columnist David Brooks said he worries about the moral hazard of the government intervening, Capehart stated, “But that’s why you need to — this law needs to be changed. It’s not like the president and Congress said, well, we’ll just make you take it just by fiat. The law says that that’s what they — they have the power to do that. So, to do what you’re saying, David, they need to change the law to give those rail workers the opportunity to strike.”

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