Amtrak has announced that all long-distance passenger trains have been canceled ahead of a looming strike by freight rail workers.
While Amtrak workers are not involved in the ongoing labor dispute, more than 21,000 miles of rail outside the Northeast Corridor — Boston to Washington — are owned and maintained by freight companies.
Members of a railroad union rejected a tentative deal with the nation’s largest railroad companies Wednesday, which include Union Pacific, Berkshire Hathaway and Norfolk Southern. Two unions have ratified agreements and three more are at the negotiating table before Friday – when union members have the legal right to strike under federal guidelines.
Amtrak announced the additional cancellations Wednesday after canceling 10 long-distance trains earlier this week.
Trains that will be canceled Thursday are the Auto Train (Washington to Sanford, Florida), Capitol Limited (Washington to Pittsburgh), Cardinal (Washington to Chicago) and Palmetto (South Washington to Savannah, Georgia).
Other commuter trains such as Chicago’s Metra also announced they would be forced to begin cutting service Thursday.
There are 12 unions representing 115,000 workers who must vote to approve the tentative deals. So far, nine have agreed.
The deals are based on recommendations from the President’s Emergency Council, appointed by President Joe Biden this summer, which called for 24 percent raises and $5,000 in bonuses in a five-year deal backdated to 2020.
Unions representing train conductors and engineers hope the railroads will address additional issues, such as their strict attendance policy, which makes it difficult to take time off. They said the railways’ decision to cut its workforce by a third over the past six years has made the job even more difficult.
They demanded that the railroads provide unpaid leave so that workers could attend to their personal business, such as doctor’s appointments, without being penalized.
The strike could further strain already congested supply chains and could escalate already high inflation. Even a brief shutdown would dramatically disrupt supplies of fuels, chemicals, food, automobiles, coal, and other imported goods and products.
According to the trade group the Association of American Railroads, a strike would cost the economy about $2 billion a day.
The Business Round Table declared that a strike would be an “economic disaster”.
Analysts have warned of gasoline shortages in the Northeast if workers strike, as 300,000 barrels of crude are transported by rail each day, according to American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.
The Biden administration has been pressuring unions and trucking companies to reach an agreement to avoid a strike and is working on a trucking and planning plan if workers walk out Friday.
Congress has the power to block the strike, as it has in previous national disputes between railroad workers, but it is unclear whether they will act in this case before the midterm elections.
With pole cables