{"id":1748412,"date":"2022-11-22T15:32:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1748412"},"modified":"2022-11-22T15:32:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:32:55","slug":"president-of-rail-union-says-congress-involvement-likely-ahead-of-looming-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-of-rail-union-says-congress-involvement-likely-ahead-of-looming-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"President Of Rail Union Says Congress Involvement Likely Ahead Of Looming Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpresident-of-rail-union-says-congress-involvement-likely-ahead-of-looming-strike%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1748412&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"p1\">The president of the nation\u2019s largest freight railway <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/unions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">union<\/a> is warning that Congress will likely get involved in order to resolve disagreements between employers and union members and steer clear of a strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI\u2019m hopeful, but I doubt it\u2019s really in the cards,\u201d SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/11\/22\/jeremy-ferguson-rail-union-strike-congressional-intervention-00070395\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> Politico Monday night. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of issues that are outstanding; that are reasons why our guys voted it down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">SMART-TD said Monday that the union\u2019s members had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/rail-strike-threat-returns-as-union-group-rejects-latest-offer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voted<\/a> against a contract with freight railroads. A cooling-off period ends on December 4, which doesn\u2019t allow the members to stop working. At that point, they could strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">\u201cSomething\u2019s gotta happen by then, otherwise we\u2019ll all walk,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a short time frame. I think we\u2019re going to see Congress panic and step in here at some point next week, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Even though eight unions have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/11\/21\/1137640529\/railroads-freight-rail-unions-vote-contract-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accepted<\/a> the agreement, if one union decides to go on strike, all of them will join in and honor the picket lines. The president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), one of the biggest rail unions, said as much, noting that the group will adhere to the December 5 strike date of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS). As of Monday, the BRS had not said if it would prolong the cooling-off period to hit a strike date of December 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cOur members will certainly honor the picket line of BRS,\u201d BLET president Dennis Pierce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/11\/21\/if-rail-strike-begins-every-union-will-honor-picket-line-says-blet.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> CNBC. \u201cI think every union will.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But Ferguson believes Congress will get involved before the deadline. Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/11\/20\/rail-union-congress-strike-00069488\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">could<\/a> decide to put in place recommendations made by a board appointed by President Joe Biden, prolong the cooling-off period, or enforce the unions\u2019 provisional deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">He is also negotiating with rail carriers again on Tuesday with other unions that have rejected the provisional contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">\u201cWe\u2019ll see if it goes anywhere,\u201d Ferguson said, however, \u201ccarriers haven\u2019t been willing to move with the other three unions\u201d \u2014 \u201cand already, our agreement has a lot of work rules changes in which theirs really didn\u2019t.\u201d He added that \u201cit\u2019s a bigger hill for us to climb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">A potential strike right before the holiday season in the United States would be destructive to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">economy<\/a> of a nation that is already struggling under inflation and high costs of essential items. Price <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/technology-business-congress-government-and-politics-79d2e2c2779598b0a14396464ee4f7e9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">increases<\/a> of gasoline, as well as a low supply of grocery items, could be expected if the groups do not come to an agreement. The strike could also effect shipping as FedEx and UPS both use the railways on some level, although the companies haven\u2019t spoken about the situation at length.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cFortunately, this year\u2019s holiday gifts have already landed on store shelves. But an interruption to rail transportation does pose a significant challenge to getting items like perishable food products and e-commerce shipments delivered on time, and it will undoubtedly add to the inflationary pressures already hitting the U.S. economy,\u201d Jess Dankert of the Retail Industry Leaders Association <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/technology-business-congress-government-and-politics-79d2e2c2779598b0a14396464ee4f7e9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A railway strike \u201cwould effectively bring hundreds of America\u2019s largest food, beverage, household and personal care manufacturing operations to a halt in a matter of days as inputs and ingredients run out. On-shelf availability and accessibility will quickly drop, compounded by almost inevitable panic buying,\u201d Tom Madrecki of the Consumer Brands Association said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A work stoppage at the railways could also impact traveling passengers since a lot of the passenger railroads run on freight railroad tracks. The railroads could also decide to stop sending certain dangerous materials and perishable food items in advance if no agreement is reached close to the cutoff time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president of the nation\u2019s largest freight railway union is warning that Congress will likely get involved in order to resolve disagreements between employers and union members and steer clear of a strike.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m hopeful, but I doubt it\u2019s really in the cards,\u201d SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson told Politico Monday night. \u201cI\u2019ve got &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":1748415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1748412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}