Not working on the railroad
American heavy industry could be facing a bleak midwinter as a national rail strike looks increasingly likely to bring US freight lines to a grinding halt, just as we head into the busy holiday season.
Negotiations between rail unions and management of major US freight railroads have been ongoing this week after a union representing 28,000 rail workers rejected the latest agreement intended to prevent any action. If a deal is not found, and just one union goes on strike, that action would be honored by all 12 rail unions, and their 115,000 members.
Strikes may have felt closer to home last Thursday if you had been unable to get your caffeine fix, with more than 2,000 Starbucks employees at 112 locations walking out on the company’s coveted Red Cup day. Indeed, the number of strikes has risen this year — bucking a multi-decade trend that has seen organized labor movements slowly disappear.
Even just the threat of strikes appears to be growing, as workers are winning union elections at major organizations such as Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, Trader Joe’s and Google. As more workers start to feel the rising pinch of inflation, wage demands and calls for better working conditions are becoming more common, leading to disputes.
