2022 United States Railroad Strike

The 2022 United States railroad strike is an averted nationwide United States freight railroad strike that would have occurred in late 2022. The original deadline for the strike was September 16, 2022. However, on the morning of September 15, 2022, the Biden Administration made a tentative labor deal with the railroad unions to avert the nationwide strike. Following the tentative labor deal being issued, the deadline for the strike was later extended to November 19, 2022, only to be extended again to December 9, 2022. Unfortunately this first tentative labor deal wasn't to last, as in November 2022, of the twelve railroad unions, four of them have rejected the labor deal, thus renewing the chance that a nationwide freight railroad strike would occur in late 2022.
However, on November 29, 2022, the House of Representatives passed a bill with another tentative labor deal in order to advert the strike. On December 1, 2022, the US Senate passed the bill, officially averting what could have been a devastating and catastrophic blow to the United States economy, in which President Joe Biden later signed one day later on December 2, 2022. Had this labor deal not passed by the US Senate, freight railroad employees would have gone on strike on the said deadline of December 9, 2022 for the first time since the 1992 United States railroad strike, which lasted from June 24 to 26, 1992. This would have resulted in catastrophic consequences for the United States economy, costing more than $2,000,000,000 in losses every day railroad workers are on strike. To make matters worse, supply chain issues, as well as the current rise in inflation, would have gotten even worse than they currently are, as almost all freight trains would basically come to a complete halt, and because of this, prices for everything people pay for would have severely started skyrocketing up, including groceries, supplies, coal, fuel, etc. This means that gas prices, which have steadily been falling from their summer 2022 skyrocketing streak, would have once again started skyrocketing back up again if trains carrying fuel grind to a halt. And to top it all off, passenger and commuter railroads like Amtrak, Metra, and Metrolink would have temporarily suspended almost all of their operations since they all operate mostly on tracks owned by class I freight railroads like Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, and CSX Transportation.
Category:United States
Category:Event