Freight Train Strike: The Biggest Looming Crisis You ve Heard Almost Nothing About | National Review
But there are a lot of other things going on in this world, and one issue that seems spectacularly under-covered a ticking time bomb, if you will is that starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, about a day and a half from now, if there isn t a new labor deal between freight-rail unions and employers, the U.S. economy will be . . . derailed.
Maybe there will be an eleventh-hour deal; I suspect many casual observers simply assume that a deal will get done because the consequences of even a brief work stoppage would be so far-reaching. But freight companies are already halting certain shipments in preparation for a potential strike, so in some ways, the consequences of a strike are already here.
The American Association of Railroads said this week that it s begun taking steps to secure the shipments of hazardous and security-sensitive materials, such as chlorine used to purify drinking water and chemicals used in fertilizer. It also warned that other freight customers may also start to experience delayed or suspended service over the course of [this] week, as the railroads prepare for the possibility that current labor negotiations do not result in a resolution and are required to safely and securely reduce operations.
At noon today, Norfolk Southern will close all gates to intermodal traffic that means anything using multiple modes of transportation such as rail, ship, aircraft, and truck. BSNF Railway, one of the largest freight railroads in North America, stopped accepting intermodal traffic as of 12:01 a.m. this morning.
Well this is not good.