Yesterday, railroads and workers' unions have reached a tentative labor agreement, intent on averting a national rail strike that threatened to shut a major segment of the US transportation network.
The deal avoids massive disruptions to the flow of key goods and commodities around the nation. About 40% of the nation's long-distance trade is moved by rail. If the unions had gone on strike, more than 7,000 trains would have been idled, costing up to an estimated $2 billion per day.
The deadline for an agreement was midnight Friday morning. President Biden commented on the deal: "The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people. It is 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."
Tentative agreements have been reached with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, which collectively represent approximately 60,000 employees, the Association of American Railroads said in a press release.
Source: cnbc.com
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