Railroad workers could leave the industry after Congress forced through a contract that does not provide them any paid sick days, an exodus that would ripple through an economy reliant on freight railroads to transport goods.

The exit of thousands of train conductors and engineers would be felt by major corporations and U.S. consumers alike. It could slow the delivery of food, fuel and online orders while strangling already-shaky supply chains.

As our friends at Twitchy first wrote, ‘207 Republicans’ got trending on Twitter over removing sick leave from the ongoing labor dispute between rail companies and its workers, which has been an economic iceberg throughout the year. Given the struggling economy, no strike must occur. It’s imperative since the financial cost is projected to be in the neighborhood of $2 billion per day and shutter 30 percent of all freight traffic. Commuter-based trains would virtually cease, and there is no way to nationalize the industry.

President Joe Biden met British royal Prince William on Friday in Boston — but not without controversy.

Biden, 80, and the prince, 40, met at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library near Boston Harbor. But while they shared polite greetings, a group of protesters chastised Biden for his role in averting a rail worker strike.

Roughly 100 protesters gathered near the men and shouted their displeasure at both, firing "f*** the royal family" at Prince William and "Joe Biden is a scab" at the president.

Others shouted, "Let's Go Brandon!", according to the Daily Mail.

President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday morning passed by Congress to prevent a railroad strike, and block workers from striking.

Biden, despite his long history of supporting trains and railway workers, signed the bill to override their threat to strike for better working conditions.

The president said it was a “tough” decision to sign the bill but that it was the “right thing to do at the moment.”

“A rail shutdown would have devastated our economy,” Biden warned.

President Joe Biden assured Americans on Friday that the U.S. economy is chugging along in the holiday season, but the very strength of a new jobs report showed that high inflation remains a recession threat.

At the White House, the president signed an emergency bill to avert a rail strike that he said could have caused 765,000 job losses in two weeks and plunged the country into a painful downturn. But many voters and economists still fear that a recession is nigh and the price of reducing high prices will be layoffs.

President Joe Biden signed a bill into law making a rail strike illegal, preventing workers from walking off the job weeks before the holiday season.

“The bill I’m about to sign ends a difficult rail dispute and helps our nation avoid what, without a doubt, would have been an economic catastrophe at a very bad time in the calendar,” Biden said Friday morning before signing the bill.

President Biden on Friday morning signed a measure that will impose a labor agreement for rail workers that his administration brokered in September, averting a nationwide disruption of rail service ahead of the holiday season. 

"The bill I'm about to sign ends a difficult rail dispute and helps our nation avoid what without a doubt would have been an economic catastrophe at a very bad time in the calendar," Mr. Biden said before signing the legislation. 

The Senate today passed a resolution from the House by a margin of 80-15 to adopt the tentative agreement that railroads and unions negotiated in September under the supervision of the White House. It will now go to President Biden for his signature.

A nationwide freight rail strike that President Joe Biden warned would have decimated the U.S. economy has been averted after the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to impose a tentatively approved labor deal.

The vote was 80-15.

The legislation, which the House passed Wednesday, marked the first time in 30 years that Congress intervened to stop a rail strike. But Biden and bipartisan congressional leaders – reluctantly – said it was imperative the potentially crippling rail strike be prevented.

TOPLINE The Senate approved a new contract between railroad companies and labor unions on Thursday in a last-minute vote, ahead of a December 9 deadline that could trigger a nationwide railroad strike and severely hamstring the economy—but Senators rejected the unions’ demands for paid sick leave.

KEY FACTS The Senate voted 80-15 in favor of an agreement, which was brokered by the Biden Administration in September and includes a 24% raise through 2024.