AFP, published Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 7:04 pm
The US executive was still struggling Wednesday to try to avoid a major strike by freight rail workers in the United States, which threatens to seriously disrupt the transport of goods in the country but also the movement of many passengers, two months before crucial elections.
The companies concerned and the two unions representing mainly train drivers were summoned on Wednesday morning at the Ministry of Labor. They had already been contacted several times by the President of the United States Joe Biden, or by his representatives.
The leaders of ten other trade unions in the sector have reached an agreement with the companies in recent days. But one of them, IAM District 19, announced Wednesday that its 4,900 members had voted against.
“All parties must remain at the table, negotiate in good faith to resolve outstanding issues and reach an agreement,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday during a briefing.
“A closure of our rail freight system would be unacceptable to our economy, the American people and all parties must work to avoid it,” he added.
This strike could weaken Joe Biden within weeks of the mid-term legislative elections, the president regularly expresses his support for the unions but must also avoid an economic crisis at a time when Americans are already facing very high inflation.
The federation of sector leaders has warned that if the strike started at midnight on Friday it would stop 7,000 trains and could cost two billion dollars a day.
Freight companies began making arrangements for the transport of hazardous materials on Monday, while the Amtrak railway company canceled passenger trains on three main lines on Tuesday.
Other local passenger transport organizations have warned, such as the Virginia Railway Express, which connects cities in northern Virginia to the federal capital Washington, that they will have to suspend lines when the strike begins.
Negotiations are not so much about wages as they are about vacation and sick leave provisions, with employees complaining that they sometimes have to work for long periods due to lack of sufficient staff.
Joe Biden had already appointed and dedicated a panel to this cause in July to facilitate discussions and reject the possibility of a strike.
The parties can now decide for themselves to continue the negotiations. Congress can also act by blocking the strike or by imposing the recommendations made by the college.
District IAM 19, the union that rejected the deal on Wednesday, said in a statement that it agreed to resume discussions until September 29.
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