Railroad unions and the management of major US freight railroads were back at the negotiating table Tuesday, working to avoid a massive strike that could upend the nation's supply chain.
Here's the deal: On Monday, members of the largest union, knowns as SMART-TD (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division) voted against an earlier deal that averted a planned strike in September. If a new agreement can't be reached, thousands of conductors and engineers will walk off the job on December 9, throwing supply chains into even more chaos.
This isn't your typical union-manager pay dispute. Workers say they are at their breaking point because of grueling scheduling policies designed to keep railroads' labor costs under control. That means conductors and engineers often work 14 days in a row, have no sick days, no set weekends, and are penalized when they miss work, even if it's for a doctor's appointment or family emergency.
Any prolonged rail strike could cause product shortages and price spikes as nearly one-third of all freight in the United States moves by rail. And that's exactly the point. The US economy can't fully function without trains or the people who operate them, which is why retailers and lawmakers are on edge.
"It would utterly upend the supply chain," said Brian Dodge, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, in an interview with my colleague Matt Egan.
Businesses are working on contingency plans and pressing the Biden administration and Congress to intervene to avoid a strike. But even though the timing of the strike, just two weeks before Christmas, has some on edge, Dodge said shoppers don't need to worry about their packages arriving in time.
"Christmas is not canceled," he said, noting that most products destined for store shelves are already at distribution centers or in stores.
On Tuesday, SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson told CNN that a strike can still be averted but "the ball is back in the carriers' hands at this point...We want to keep America moving."
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