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Railroad workers are continuing their demand for paid sick days. The Sheet Metal, Air, Rail Transportation Union, or SMART, held an informational picket near the rail yard on Rice’s Point on the afternoon of Dec. 13.

Transportation stakeholders are applauding the action by Congress to avert a nationwide freight rail strike, just weeks before Christmas.

Moving quickly to help avert a rail workers strike that would have cost the national economy an estimated $2 billion per day, the U.S. Senate on Dec. 1 advanced a tentative labor agreement between railroads and their employees.

To avert a railroad strike projected to cost the economy $2 billion daily, the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 30 passed a bill outlining a labor agreement between rail carriers and workers.

The possibility of a nationwide freight rail strike beginning as early as Dec. 9 moved one step closer when the union SMART-TD, one of the largest in contract talks with the six Class I freight carriers, turned down a tentative agreement negotiated in mid-September by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and other officials.

The possibility of a nationwide freight railroad strike is increasing after another union turned down a tentative agreement that was negotiated in mid-September among the major Class I carriers, a management council and the Biden administration.

A coalition of 322 organizations that relies on the nation’s Class I freight railroads wrote a letter to President Joe Biden Oct. 27, urging the White House and administration officials to continue to seek a settlement in the increasingly bitter contract dispute that could result in a nationwide rail strike in November or December and could cause extensive damage to the U.S. economy.

OMAHA, Neb. — The U.S.’s third-largest railroad union rejected a deal with employers Oct. 10, renewing the possibility of a strike that could cripple the economy. Both sides will return to the bargaining table before that happens.

The threat of a nationwide strike by railroad workers that could have shut down the nation’s freight trains exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain that could have proved devastating to the economy.

Major ports and rail facilities across the U.S. Southeast have halted operations as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the country advances as a tropical storm, causing disruptions along the way and resulting in another blow for already strained supply chains.