Railroads, Unions Form Rare Alliance Over Sickness Benefit Cuts

A recent cut in railroad workers’ sickness and unemployment benefits has made bedfellows of usually-adversarial groups—railroad companies and their employees—now pushing Congress to fix an issue that could strain their workforce and the nation’s supply chain it supports.

Legislation to reverse the decrease has bipartisan, bicameral support, but Congress’s emboldened fiscal hawks and packed schedule threaten relief for the workers whom lawmakers have praised in recent years for keeping the economy moving through the pandemic.

“It’s really very frustrating,” Matt Weaver, who has worked on the railroad since 1994, said. “It’s really substantial because we work outside, we’re in the ...