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President Joe Biden stops national railroad strike, extends ‘cooling off’ period

By Admin

Reported by Harrison Mantas for Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

President Joe Biden blocked a strike Friday by the nation’s railroad workers by naming a board to help resolve the dispute.

Rail labor unions were preparing to strike July 18 when a federally mandated “cooling off period” expired, however, Biden’s order extends that period for 60 days.

The board’s recommendations aren’t legally binding, but can serve as a jumping off point for compromise.

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Biden names Presidential Emergency Board, preventing rail strike

By Admin

Reported by David Lassen for Trains.

Preventing a national rail strike that could have begun Monday, July 18, President Joe Biden has established a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate the ongoing dispute between railroads and workers.

Biden will name the members of the three-person board, whose members can not have any financial or other interest in either a rail labor organization or a railroad. The board will have 30 days from its establishment, effective Monday, to deliver a report recommending a resolution to the dispute. After that, the Railway Labor Act specifies there can be no work stoppage for another 30 days, except by agreement of both sides.

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Biden creates emergency panel to stave off rail worker strike

By Admin

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order to establish an emergency board to handle an ongoing dispute between freight railroads and their unions over a new labor contract.

The board’s formation averts a potential strike by union members on Monday.

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News update: National rail strike averted

By Admin

Reported by David C. Lester for RT&S.

RT&S reported earlier that we were running out of time to avoid a possible national rail labor strike beginning Monday, July 18. We can now report this potential strike has been averted.

President Biden issued an executive order creating a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) that will avoid a national rail strike and help railroads and their workers settle ongoing national labor negotiations and ultimately agree to a new contract.

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Threat of US freight rail strike tests Biden’s union-friendly pledge

By Admin

Reported by Taylor Nicole Rogers for Financial Times.

Joe Biden’s pledge to be the most “pro-union” president is being put to the test as some 112,000 employees of the largest US freight rail carriers threaten to go on strike as early as next week, a move that could cripple the country’s already strained supply chains.

The US’s largest railroads and the unions that represent their employees have tried to renegotiate their expired labour contract for more than two years. But the two groups are at an impasse over pay and benefits, and the federal board that oversees their mediation process abruptly ended talks earlier this month.

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Nation’s supply chain hurt by railroad workers being ‘ground to dust,’ AFL-CIO head says

By Admin

Reported by Harrison Mantas for Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Efforts by national freight rail carriers to increase efficiency are having the opposite effect, a union official said Tuesday.

Demoralized workers are leaving the industry causing delays and damage to the national supply chain, said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.

Major rail carriers have cut roughly 45,000 positions in the past six years, according to an April 2022 report from the federal Surface Transportation Board. 

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President Biden faces deadline in U.S. railroad labor standoff

By Admin

Reported by Lisa Baertlein for Reuters.

U.S. President Joe Biden faces a deadline next week to intervene in nationwide U.S. railroad labor talks covering 115,000 workers, or open the door to a potential strike or lockout that could threaten an already fragile economy and choke supplies of food and fuel.

The stakes are high for Biden, who wants to tackle inflation-stoking supply-chain woes and is already working to reach a deal in the critical labor talks at West Coast seaports.

If the president declines to intercede in the railroad labor negotiations by appointing a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) before 12:01 a.m. EDT on Monday, the railroads and unions could opt for operational shutdowns or strikes, respectively. If appointed, the board would make recommendations that could be used as a framework for a voluntary settlement.

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RAIL WORKERS PREP FOR NEXT STEP

By Admin

Reported by Nick Niedzwiadek and Eleanor Mueller for Politico.

RAIL WORKERS PREP FOR NEXT STEP: Freight rail workers held a demonstration Sunday in Lincoln, Nebraska, near a key linkage in the country’s supply chain infrastructure.

It is one of several moves that labor leaders are teeing up to rally support among members and the public ahead of a July 18 deadline for the White House to appoint a Presidential Emergency Board to resolve an ongoing labor dispute between unionized rail workers and the freight industry.

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Lincoln railway workers rally for better work conditions, wages

By Admin

Reported by Grace McDonald for KOLN.

Railway workers rallied outside of the BNSF Railway offices on Sunday. Participants marched and chanted around the Lincoln Station, advocating for more benefits, a pay raise and a new contract.

“We’ve gone too long without proper pay raises, proper benefits, sick leave,” said Jakob Forsgren, local chairman of Lodge 1320 for the Brotherhood of Maitenance Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “We’re fed up with the way that we’ve been treated the last couple of years in these contract negotiations, and it’s clear to me that I’m not the only one who has those feelings. So we’re just here to kind of show the railroads that enough is enough.”

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CORPORATE BILLIONAIRES ARE WRECKING THE SUPPLY CHAIN. JUST LOOK AT THE RAILROADS

By Admin

Reported by Mel Buer for The Real News.

Before these past two years, if you were polling passersby on the street, you would have been hard pressed to find anyone ready to admit that they were seriously concerned about the supply chain. You’d be hard pressed, for that matter, to find many who could describe what the supply chain actually is (present company included). That is certainly not the case today. From shortages—and correspondingly high costs—of groceries and consumer goods like baby formula and sunflower oil to medical devices, “supply chain issues” have become a pronounced source of anxiety and frustration for consumers, workers, businesses, and politicians alike.

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