If politics makes strange bedfellows, economics sometimes forces them to exchange pajamas.

In the current brouhaha over a potential railroad strike, many Democrats are sounding like Republicans and turning their backs on union allies. Today, 79 House Republicans voted for legislation to stop the strike, joining Democrats to interfere with private enterprise.

Hardly anyone, it seems, wants railway workers to go on strike next month over the lack of paid sick leave in a new deal with employers brokered by the Biden administration. So there’s bipartisan pressure for Congress to step in. The reason? The big R.

No, that doesn’t stand for railroads. It stands for recession. Both political parties fear that a rail strike could tip the United States into an economic downturn. That’s a reasonable concern. Railroads move about 28% of the nation’s freight when measured by weight. Half of that involves commodities, everything from grain to fuel to chemicals to autos and auto parts. Those are not goods that politicians want to stop flowing when many crucial supply chains are still constrained. It wouldn’t do the Christmas shopping season any favors, either.

Of course, things are never as simple as they might appear. Four of the 12 unions rejected the proposed union contract because of the lack of paid sick leave, something that 3 in 4 private sector workers already receive and some states mandate. But federal law, which gives Congress special power to stop railroad strikes, also mandates that rail workers receive unemployment benefits if they’re injured or sick for four days or more. Courts are still sorting out which laws should prevail. Rail workers say they sometimes have to schedule time off weeks in advance.

The Biden administration is pitching the proposed contract as an unsavory but practical compromise. Time will tell whether the Senate will let its ideals get in the way.