Letters to the Editor: No, Biden didn't sell out railroad workers seeking sick pay

To the editor: How is it the fault of "Biden and the Democrats" that the sick pay bill for railroad workers didn’t pass? The Democratic-controlled House passed it, but the Republicans in the Senate sank it. ("Biden and the Democrats failed railroad workers — and handed the GOP an opportunity," letters, Dec. 4)

President Biden has an obligation to the entire country not to let a strike, however worthy, destroy a fragile economy. And if the disgruntled workers think that Republicans will give them a better deal, I’ve got some Florida swampland to sell them.

Michael Schaller, Temple City

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To the editor: One letter writer laid the failure to pass a bill giving rail workers paid sick leave at the feet of the Democrats. As I seem to recall, the House did advance a bill with seven days of sick pay for workers.

But in the Senate, all of the Democrats, save one from West Virginia, voted in favor of such a bill, along with a small handful of Republicans. But the necessary 10, or in this case 11, Republican votes needed to pass the legislation were not achieved.

How then is this failure laid at the feet of the Democrats?

Mike Kilgore, Mar Vista

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.