García endorsed by three rail unions after advocating for paid sick leave in Congress

Chicago mayoral candidate and U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D) garnered endorsements from three major rail unions Thursday after voting against the rail strike bill that did not include paid sick leave for workers.

On the heels of gaining the endorsement of @Local150 , Congressman Chuy Garcia is being backed by three rail unions in his bid for mayor.@CrainsChicago pic.twitter.com/fXQ1daRcsg

— Justin Laurence (@jus10chi) December 1, 2022

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to block a potential strike by rail unions by imposing a deal. Although a rail strike would be detrimental to the economy, several Democrats along with García voted against the legislation because the bill did not include paid sick leave for workers, one of the main bargaining points they are demanding. Under the current terms, rail workers are guaranteed no sick leave at all.

Legislators introduced a second bill that passed in the House that gives the workers seven days of sick leave per year — eight less days than they asked for. However, there was not enough support from Republicans as the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold to pass, failing by a vote of 52-43.

The rail unions’ support comes just a day after the Operating Engineers Local 150 Union announced their support for García. According to their website, Local 150 represents around 23,000 construction workers in northern Illinois, Indiana and parts of Iowa. The union typically spends a large sums of money to support candidates during election cycles, and their representatives cited the lack of new construction projects in Chicago under current Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s term as one of their reasons for endorsing García.

These endorsements mirror those notched by Garcia’s fellow progressive Brandon Johnson, who received the support of Chicago’s Teacher’s Union in September and the Service Employees International Union Local 73 in early November. Both of those unions previously supported García when he last ran for mayor in 2015.

Disclaimer: Brandon Johnson previously hosted a weekend program, “Sunday Mornings with Brandon Johnson,” on WCPT 820AM prior to his mayoral campaign. And Edwin Eisendrath, host of “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” on WCPT, endorsed U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García in the race. Neither of these influenced and will not influence Heartland Signal’s editorial process in covering the 2023 Chicago mayoral election.