If all continues as they planned, railroad workers will go on strike THIS FRIDAY. Yes, you read that correctly. A major strike has been brewing under the radar among railroad workers around the country.

President Biden made calls to union leaders and rail companies Monday, pressing for a deal to avert a national railroad strike that is days away from shutting down much of the country’s transportation infrastructure, according to a White House official.

Biden administration officials have also started preparing for a potential shutdown, warning a strike could seriously damage the U.S. economy, as well as hurt Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Biden’s calls follow unsuccessful emergency meetings at the White House last week, which have been led by the White House National Economic Council and included Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is also involved in trying to broker the impasse, said the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about internal deliberations. 

What just a minute! We were just treated to a massive tone-deaf garden party sing-along with James Taylor in which Team Biden insists there’s no inflation, it’s just our imagination! But now we are told a strike could damage the economy? 

Just as with the truckers, it is the RAILROADS that move massive amounts of goods and services around the country. In fact, railroads move nearly 54 tons of goods and services annually PER American. What do they move in addition to coal? How about car parts, cars, construction materials, metals, minerals, grain, fruit, paper and lumber. The list is long. Yet, on Friday, if something doesn’t get resolved, railroads will come to a screeching halt. This is of such significant concern that even commuter and passenger trains are being affected. 

Amtrak announced Monday it is pre-emptively canceling some long distance trips, mostly out of Chicago, ahead of a possible freight railroad strike later this week.

Starting Tuesday, Amtrak said service would be suspended on the Southwest Chief (Chicago to Los Angeles), the Empire Builder (Chicago to Minneapolis to Spokane to Portland/Seattle), the California Zephyr (Chicago to Denver to San Francisco) and the Los Angeles to San Antonio Train #421 portion of the Texas Eagle routes.

Want the imaginary inflation to get even worse? Let’s have our economic output come to a screeching halt when an industry that moves 30% of goods and services shuts down. 

There are two unions holding out on the talks and refusing to come to an agreement. Evidently, the pay proposal isn’t quite enough. 

The Presidential Emergency Board proposed a 24% pay raise, gradually increasing until 2024. The AAR stated that the recommended changes would result in more than $11,000 per employee on average if ratified.

“President Biden’s PEB issued recommendations that should set the framework for a negotiated agreement between railroads and unions,” AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said in the statement. “The recommendations would provide 24% compounded wage increases by 2024, with 14.1% of those increases effective immediately, along with additional service recognition bonuses totaling $5,000 over the course of the contract. An agreement based on these terms would lead to the largest general wage increase in nearly 40 years.”

The largest wage increase in 40 years? That’s nothing to sneeze at, but still not quite satisfactory. Furthermore, there are other issues concerning the proposals. 

For folks asking: why is a railroad strike looming that would shut down much of the major transportation infrastructure in the US (…. & impact nearly every part of the economy from food to energy to retail)?

A little context: It all boils down to sick leave policies.

— Lauren Kaori Gurley (@LaurenKGurley) September 13, 2022

Yes, there’s a significant issue with what the railroad companies are refusing to budge on. 

But the remaining two unions, who represent 57,000 workers slated to strike, are angry the recommendations don’t address a lack of sick days or attendance policies that penalize workers. Engineers and conductors face penalties for taking any time off, including weekends, outside of holidays and preplanned vacation, even in the case of emergencies.

Labor groups say workers have been fired for going to routine doctor’s appointments or family members’ funerals. Conductors and engineers can be on call for 14 consecutive days, for up to 12 hours daily. They also don’t get sick days.

I can’t think of any other industry that has its workforce be on call for that many days in a row, nor for a full 12 hours. Wouldn’t that be a bit of a safety issue?? Secondly, aren’t there you know, LAWS about providing sick leave and vacation days? But there is more to it than just sick leave policies. This is a problem that has been brewing for quite some time, and Covid had a significant impact on operations as well. 

That meant less staff. Union Pacific, for example, has 12,000 fewer employees today than 5 years prior.

This was somewhat manageable pre-covid, but crews were still struggling with new procedures and similar freight volumes + less experienced staff https://t.co/YtiZePKDXz

— Rachel Premack (@rrpre) September 13, 2022

60,000 railroad workers could walk off the job as soon as Friday. It’s about the last thing the US economy needs. A prolonged strike could mean some empty shelves in stores, temporary closures at factories, and higher prices on various consumer goods. https://t.co/CY92Nmn9AI pic.twitter.com/BsVsHCU8Fh

— CNN (@CNN) September 13, 2022

This is absolutely the LAST thing this country needs! Want to see higher prices at the grocery stores? If the strike DOES happen on Friday, we will be in a world of hurt when it comes to getting produce and other food products onto the grocery store shelves. Building a home? You’d better hope that everything is already in place otherwise the schedule just got pushed out and costs will go higher. 

Be worried folks. Because that railroad strike will decimate our supply chain in a split second. You can damned well bet that, instead of owning up to their part in it, the Biden team will point the fingers of blame at both the railroad companies and the employees. 

UPDATE: A deal has been reached at essentially the 11th hour. 

The agreement, hashed out as a national rail strike loomed at midnight on Friday, will raise rail employees salaries 24 percent from the period from 2020 to 2024, with workers getting an average lump sum payment of $11,000 for the backdated portion of the raise, according to a group representing rail companies. 

Biden called the deal ‘a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years.’

The devil is in the details however. This seems like a big raise. However, given today’s inflation, it isn’t quite as significant as it would’ve been in the past. Also, are the issues of sick leave, hospital visits, funerals, etc being addressed in this deal? The union membership still has to vote on this, so keep an eye out on this situation. We aren’t out of the woods yet. 

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Feature Photo Credit: Burlington Northern freight train via Flickr, cropped and modified