A looming railroad strike was averted on Friday after Congress passed a bill requiring unionized railway workers to sign on to a tentative deal struck with railroad operators back in September.

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law, which he claimed ended “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.”

Congress moved to act earlier in the week, concerned over the economic repercussions a work stoppage could have during the holiday season.

“I wish that the president were more hands-on with this issue and able to handle it without coming to Congress,” said Sen. Rob Portman, speaking with The New York Times on Tuesday before the House and Senate voted on the bill. “But I don’t think we should be irresponsible and leave the possibility out there of a major strike.”

The House of Representatives passed two bills on Wednesday. One required the railway workers to accept the September deal, which provides pay raises and one additional personal day. The other bill, which failed to pass in the Senate, would have provided an additional seven days of paid sick leave, CNBC reported.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas explained his vote against sick leave, stating, “There would be no incentive for people to try to reach some negotiated outcome if they can come running to the Congress and Congress would redo it.”

Most union railway workers had not been willing to accept the September agreement. They had pledged to go on strike on December 9 if negotiations did not move forward, threatening a critical, labor-starved logistics industry just weeks before Christmas. With the law enacted, any striking workers can be fired from their jobs for breaking the agreement.

The federal government is empowered to intervene in labor negotiations when disputes “threaten substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service,” per the Railway Act of 1926.

“Our nation’s rail system is literally the backbone of our supply chain … Without freight rail, many of the U.S. industries would literally shut down,” said Biden.

As previously reported in The Dallas Express, several industries had begun making arrangements to ship their goods using trucks instead of by rail in anticipation of a strike, following more than a year of supply-chain bottlenecks and labor shortages that repeatedly disrupted the transportation of goods.

Biden thanked Congress on Friday for acting quickly, “It was the right thing to do at the moment to save jobs, to protect millions of working families from harm and disruption, and to keep supply chains stable around the holidays, and to continue the progress we’ve made and we’re — continue to see on the economy.”