The United States is facing a threat to its supply chain amid fears of a rail strike in two weeks following a rejection by the country's largest union of a labor deal that was brokered by President Joe Biden.
The largest rail union in the country, which represents engineers, announced on Monday its rejection of the tentative labor deal with freight railroads. The failure of the conductors to ratify their deal is seen as another setback to efforts to avoid a massive national strike.
The Threat of a Nationwide Strike
All 12 of the rail unions have now completed their ratification process, with the members of eight of them voting in favor of deals and four voting against them. The latter will remain on the job until at least early next month as negotiations are held in an attempt to avoid a strike that could cause widespread interruptions to supply chains.
If even just one of the 12 railroad unions decide to go on strike, the other 11 would honor the picket lines, shutting down the railroads. In the chance that a strike occurs and lasts for an extended period, it could result in shortages and higher prices for goods including fuel and food, as per CNN.
If the four unions that voted against the deals are not able to reach new agreements before strike deadlines, Congress could be forced to order the railroad workers to remain on the job or return to work.
There were two unions that released voting results on Monday, which were the transportation division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation union (SMART-TD), which represents roughly 28,000 conductors, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which represents roughly 24,000 engineers.
According to the Associated Press, the threat of a strike comes as many union members have voted to reject the contracts because they argued that the deals fail to address demanding schedules and quality-of-life issues for employees.
Failure to Address Work Issues
In a statement, the Retail Industry Leaders Association said that a rail strike would result in an enormous disruption to the United States' flow of goods. This comes despite retail stores being well-stocked for the crucial holiday shopping season.
Jess Dankert, who is with the group that represents more than 200 major retailers, said that it was fortunate that this year's holiday gifts have already landed on store shelves. However, they argued that supply chain interruptions could cause challenges to getting items, such as perishable food products and e-commerce shipments to be delivered on time.
While the unions that rejected the deals agreed to return to negotiations in an attempt to hash out a new deal, those talks have largely been in a deadlock. This is because the railroads refused to consider adding paid sick time to what was already offered in previous proposals.
The president of SMART-TD, Jeremy Ferguson, said that it was now time to go back to the bargaining table for their operating craft members. He added that issues could be resolved even without a strike, noting that it was now the responsibility of the railroads' court, USA Today reported.