U.S. may welcome first nationwide railroad strike in 30 years

International Business News – Several major unions representing railroad workers are negotiating with major freight railroad companies over labor disputes in recent days, according to several US media reports. As the parties have been slow to reach an agreement in the negotiations, the United States may hold its first national railroad workers strike in 30 years on the 16th local time. The strike is expected to have a severe negative impact on the U.S. economy.

Regarding the possible strike on the 16th, the National Railroad Passenger Company said on the 14th that it will cancel all long-distance trains from the 15th local time. The U.S. government said it had begun developing contingency plans, hoping to use other modes of transportation to ensure the delivery of critical supplies in the event of a rail shutdown. But industry experts say the loss of rail capacity is unlikely to be made up by other means. The U.S. trucking industry, in particular, is already facing a shortage of drivers.

According to estimates by the Association of American Railroads, a possible strike on the 16th will affect nearly 30% of the transportation of goods in the United States, disrupt the supply of food and fuel transportation, and exacerbate inflation in the United States. A series of transportation problems caused by the strike will affect the US energy, agriculture, manufacturing and retail industries, and the economic loss may be as high as 2 billion US dollars a day.

Andrew Wheaton, director of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations: The railroad is estimated to be $2 billion a day (loss), which is a huge “hot potato”, and no one wants a strike to disrupt an already fragile economy. This Industry strikes could raise the price of food, it could raise the price of fertilizer, and the price of anything transported by rail could rise.

Some analysts pointed out that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has caused supply chain disruptions, high inflation and soaring energy costs in the United States. If there is another large-scale strike at this time, it is bound to make the US economy worse. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce even warned that the strike could cause a “national economic disaster.”