WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly voted Thursday to prevent a national rail strike from kicking off next week by imposing a collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the Biden White House, averting what the president called a “Christmas catastrophe” for the struggling economy.

The Senate voted 80-15 to enshrine the terms of a tentative deal unveiled in September that would give 115,000 members of 12 rail unions 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020. It also would require that workers pay a larger share of their health insurance costs, but their premiums would be capped at 15% of the total cost of the plan. Another senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted “present.”

The House passed the same bill a day earlier and President Biden is expected to sign it as soon as Friday.

“Working together, we have spared this country a Christmas catastrophe in our grocery stores, in our workplaces and in our communities,” the president said in a post-vote statement. “This week’s bipartisan action pulls our economy back from the brink of a devastating shutdown that would have hurt millions of families and union workers in countless industries.”

The bill’s passage blocks rail unions from carrying out a planned Dec. 9 strike that would have cost the US an estimated $2 billion a day in economic activity and further jammed supply chains during the holiday season.

Four of the 12 unions voted to oppose the deal because it did not include paid sick leave.

The House on Wednesday passed a provision that would have added seven days of paid sick leave each year for union workers by a 221-207 vote. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put forward the same resolution in the Senate Thursday, but it could only muster 52 votes, falling short of the required 60.

Six Republicans voted in favor of adding the paid sick leave to the agreement – including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who gave Sanders a fist bump after casting his vote. Sanders reportedly told Cruz, “I knew you were a socialist.” 

“Nope. I’m not,” Cruz said in a response posted to Twitter. “I just don’t agree with Biden & the Democrats voting to screw the union workers.”

“I did tell @BernieSanders ‘I just voted with you. I don’t know if that hurts you more or me more!’” he added.

The five other Republicans who supported the expanded leave were Mike Braun of Indiana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, and Marco Rubio of Florida. Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against it.

“[Sick leave] is what the workers say is very important to them, and I would support that,” Hawley told NPR on Wednesday.

Rail companies have said offering more sick days would require them to hire more people. Sanders alleged they could afford to do so because business has “never been better” for the industry, whose profits he said are “up by over $21 billion.”

“One of the CEOs in the rail industry makes $20 million a year; another guy makes $14 million a year. They are doing phenomenally well,” he said. “But … over the last six years, they have cut back on their workforce by 30%, which means that workers in the rail industry are asked to do more with less support.”

The Senate also voted 69-26 against a resolution imposing a 60-day cooling-off period that was put forward by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

Congress has the power to keep trains running under the federal Railway Labor Act of 1926, but had not done so in three decades. On that occasion, Biden was one of six Democratic senators to vote against setting up an arbitration mechanism to settle the strike, arguing it wrongly undercut collective bargaining efforts.

On Monday, however, Biden had requested Congress step in to keep the trains running — saying that there was “no path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table.”

“I know that many in Congress shared my reluctance to override the union ratification procedures,” he said Thursday. “But in this case, the consequences of a shutdown were just too great for working families all across the country.”