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American rail workers may strike! The railway company began to suspend freight service

Time:2022-09-15 Publisher:Kevin Num:3182

If the main theme of American ports last year was port congestion, the main theme of this year is strike. Earlier, truck drivers at LA/LB Port went on strike because they protested against the "AB5" bill.

However, the workers at the port are still negotiating with the port operator and have never reached an agreement.

(Related reading: American truck drivers blocked the dock, and British railway workers planned to strike again)

At present, it is reported that the railway workers will strike after 0:00 on September 16. In response to the strike, several major freight rail companies in the United States have begun to reduce their freight services in advance.

Several major freight railway companies in the United States, including United Pacific Railway (UP), must reach a preliminary agreement with the labor union before 0:00 this Friday, or the labor union may strike.

According to the US Transportation Statistics Bureau, nearly 30% of goods in the United States are transported by train. If there is a strike, the US economy may lose about US $2 billion a day and aggravate the supply chain dilemma.

As no agreement has been reached with the two largest railway unions in the United States, and the unions refused to guarantee that they would not strike. 

American freight railway company issued a notice last weekend, and has begun to formulate emergency plans to ensure that the operation can be safely suspended when the strike occurs, and can be quickly restarted when the operation resumes.

From September 12, the railway company stopped accepting the transport of dangerous goods and other safety sensitive goods to ensure that such goods will not be left on the train or in an unsafe place when the strike occurs.

BNSF, a railway company serving the western United States, said it would suspend accepting refrigerated multimodal cargo; NS Railway, which serves the eastern United States, said it would suspend accepting all multimodal cargo.

The American Chamber of Commerce said that the suspension of national railway services would have a huge impact on the country, which would lead to the waste of perishable food, disrupt the transportation of goods, and hinder the transportation of fuel and chemicals.

The US food, energy, automobile and retail groups also called on the US Congress to intervene, saying that the railway outage may threaten all aspects from the global food supply to the transportation of goods related to the Christmas holiday.

The National Grain and Feed Association of the United States said that American farmers were harvesting corn, wheat and soybeans for export to all parts of the world at a time when a rail strike might occur. "The economic losses of the entire food and agricultural supply chain will be rapid and serious."

The BLET trade union said in a statement: "Congress should stay out of the railway dispute, tell the railway company to do what other business leaders have done, and sit down to negotiate a contract that employees will accept."

Besides, the strike action will also affect the operation of ports across the United States. Because a large part of containers are transported out of the terminal by train, including ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York New Jersey, Savannah, Seattle Tacoma and Virginia.

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