Looming Rail Strike Prompts 400-Plus Trade Groups to Urge Congress to Intervene in Stalled Talks

More than 400 groups have signed onto a letter asking congressional leaders to intervene in the freight railroad labor standoff that threatens to turn into a crippling strike that could inflict billions of dollars in economic damage.
The Nov. 28 letter (pdf)—addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—warns that the looming strike would be “extremely damaging to American families and our economy, costing $2 billion per day.”
That staggering cost estimate comes from an analysis by the Association of American Railroads (pdf), which warned that a potential rail strike and ensuing shutdown could freeze a large proportion of U.S. cargo shipments, impede supplies of food and fuel, cause transportation snarls, and stoke inflation….}