For the first time in 30 years, railroad workers could go on strike Friday.
According to The Brotherhood of Local Engineers and Trainman, workers say they’re being penalized or fired for taking sick days and made to work long on-call shifts while short staffed.
A strike would impact some 50,000 engineers and conductors. ASU Supply Chain Management Professor, Hitendra Chaturvedi says if it happens it could spell disaster for our fragile economy.
“If this happens at the time when we are trying to recover out of the problems of the last two years, this will put us back, way back,”
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 30% of U.S. goods are transported by railway, including car parts, food, and gas.
“Railroads carry over 300,000 barrels of crude oil to the refinery,” Hitendra said.
“If we were to replace the rail roads you would have to put close to half million long haul trucks on the road.”
Transportation will be impacted as well — Amtrak releasing the following statement:
Starting Thursday, Sept. 15, all Amtrak Long Distance trains are canceled to avoid possible passenger disruptions while enroute.
Amtrak is closely monitoring the ongoing freight rail – rail labor contract negotiations. The negotiations do not involve Amtrak or the Amtrak workforce. While we are hopeful that parties will reach a resolution, Amtrak has now begun phased adjustments to our service in preparation for a possible freight rail service interruption later this week. Such an interruption could significantly impact intercity passenger rail service, as Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads. These adjustments are necessary to ensure trains can reach their terminals before freight railroad service interruption if a resolution in negotiations is not reached.
Most travel within the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor (Boston - New York - Washington) and related branch lines to Albany, NY, Harrisburg, PA, and Springfield, MA would not be affected: Acela would operate a full schedule, and only a small number of Northeast Regional departures would be impacted. Amtrak will reach out to impacted and potentially impacted customers, informing them of the potential situation, offering to change their reservation to another travel date, waiving any difference in fare for departures through October 31, or receiving a full refund without cancelation fees.
Local light rail service will not be disrupted. Valley Metro says its workers do not belong to the unions in play.
Chaturvedi says a strike could tip our teetering economy the wrong way.
“The strength of a supply chain is the strength of the weakest link. And if one of those links is a paper clip, then the entire strength of the supply chain is the strength of a paper clip. And at this moment, if this strike happens there’s going to be a humongous ripple affect across the entire supply chain,” he said.
Chaturvedi says Arizona’s agriculture could be most directly impacted by a strike.
“Harvest season is coming so these railroads will carry a lot of harvest to the ports,” he said.
Railroads say they’re offering workers a nearly 25% raise, keeping economist optimistic for a settlement.
“Even if it happens, it’s going to be very very short-lived,” Chaturvedi said.
But workers contend if conditions don’t change they will strike.
“But God forbid if it is a long-term strike, then all bets are off.”
Union members and railroad representatives are in Washington DC meeting with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh To try and hash things out with Congress, standing by to possibly intervene.
