© Reuters Is America’s ‘traffic disaster’ about to happen?Biden: The government has intervened in the talks on a rail strike
News from the Financial Associated Press, Shanghai, November 25 (edited by Huang Junzhi)The mid-term election has just ended, and US President Biden has added another problem to the heart – the “traffic disaster” of the rail strike. He said on Thursday that his administration was involved in negotiations to avoid a rail strike in the United States.
Biden said his team has been in contact with all parties, but has yet to be directly involved. However, he refused to give details about the progress of the negotiations, which are ongoing.
Last month more than 300 organizations, including the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers, urged Biden to get involved to help avert a strike. The strike could disrupt shipments of food and fuel while costing the already struggling US economy billions of dollars.
In particular, rail traffic outages could freeze nearly 30 percent of US cargo shipments (such as fuel, corn, and drinking water), triggering inflation that could trigger a cascade of disruptions affecting energy, agriculture, manufacturing industries , US healthcare and retail. problem. It can also complicate train travel during the holiday season.
The Federation of American Railroads previously said that if an agreement cannot be reached before December 9, nearly 7,000 freight trains in the United States could come to a halt, costing more than $2 billion a day.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously said, “Given the damage this (rail strike) has caused to jobs, families, farms, businesses and communities across the country, the shutting down is unacceptable.”
In fact, not only can the US economy not bear the consequences of the rail strike, but Biden’s political career cannot afford it either, especially when inflation remains high. Because the 80-year-old Biden is still considering continuing to run for re-election in 2024, once the railroads actually go on strike, the political popularity he gained by helping the Democratic Party avoid defeat may disastrous in the mid-term elections this time. be seriously harmed.
The White House narrowly avoided a general rail strike in September, when Biden hosted labor leaders in the Oval Office to celebrate an agreement in principle.
It now appears that Biden’s celebration may have been premature. The agreement still needs to be ratified by 12 union members, but four union groups have expressed disapproval. And now they still have two weeks to reach an agreement. If one union strikes, the others will follow.
