WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) issued the following statement ahead of the House’s votes on railroad workers legislation. Yesterday, Rep. Pressley, along with Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Chuy Garcia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar introduced an amendment to increase the paid sick leave protections for railroad workers.

“Every worker deserves paid sick leave and denying workers this essential right is unconscionable. I stand in solidarity with railroad workers in their fight for paid sick leave protections in their federal contract. I was proud to partner with my progressive colleagues earlier this week to put forward an amendment to provide them just that. I thank House leadership and the Biden-Harris Administration for working with us to put a vote on paid sick time for rail workers on the floor today, and I urge my colleagues to vote yes.

“No one should ever be forced to choose between their life and their livelihoods. Every person who calls this nation home should be able to take their kid to the doctor, rest when they have the flu, and get the preventative care they need.

“Providing our rail workers the paid sick leave they demand, deserve, and require is critical to a just recovery and to our work to affirm health care as the fundamental human right that it is. Again, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment to increase paid sick time for railroad workers on the House floor today, and I look forward to getting this important legislation to the President’s desk.”

Congresswoman Pressley has led efforts in Congress to extend and expand paid leave protections. 

In October 2021, Rep. Pressley led over 100 House Democrats on a letter urging President Biden to defend robust paid family and medical leave provisions in the ongoing negotiations over the Build Back Better Act.

In February 2021, Reps. Pressley and DeLauro led 96 of their House colleagues in writing to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to include meaningful and permanent paid leave in the next COVID-19 recovery package, and partner with Congress to make these protections a reality in America. 

In January 2021, Reps. Pressley and DeLauro and Sens. Gillibrand and Murray sent a letter urging the incoming Biden administration and congressional leadership to extend and expand the COVID-19 emergency paid leave provisions that expired at the end of last year. 

In May 2020, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-22) led a group of 17 freshman Members of Congress calling on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to expand paid family and medical leave as part of the HEROES Act. 

In April 2020, Reps. Pressley and DeLauro, along with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA), introduced the PAID Leave Act (Providing Americans Insured Days of Leave Act), a comprehensive emergency paid sick, paid family and medical leave bill to provide additional financial support to our nation’s most vulnerable workers and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health emergencies. 

###