Free Republic

The United States have a lot of railroads — big national lines and short regional lines, freight railways that share their track with commuter lines, lines designed with high clearance for container stacktrains. And while there are still a few tycoons in the world, the days of the railroads being the shining monuments to a single millionaire's fortune are long past; many of our railroads, like most big corporations nowadays, are publicly traded and are therefore owned and controlled by the nameless, faceless fund managers of Wall Street. To have all these railroads, you need a lot of employees. Here,...

WASHINGTON — President Biden signed legislation Friday forcing railway unions to accept a labor agreement despite worker objections to a lack of paid sick days — hours before hobnobbing with visiting British royals. Biden regularly calls himself the “most pro-union president” in history but asked Congress to intervene Monday, saying the US economy could not bear a railway shutdown. The president will meet Friday afternoon in Boston with Prince William, the heir to the UK crown, and his wife Kate Middleton — creating awkward optics after the president also hosted billionaires and Hollywood stars Thursday night for a lux state...

A perfect storm is taking place in the diesel market, with dwindling diesel reserves, a drought on the Mississippi River pushing more product to rail and truck, and a possible rail strike leading to a surge in prices that is expected to continue. Diesel prices have increased by 33% for November deliveries. “The national average price for diesel today is $5.30 per gallon and is expected to go up 15 to 20 cents in the next few weeks,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, LLC. Reserves for diesel this time of year have not been this low since...

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The threat of a crippling nationwide freight rail strike next month gathered speed Wednesday after a second railroad union rejected a tentative labor agreement. The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, which represents more than 6,000 workers who install and repair signal systems, voted down the proposed four-year deal, brokered by the Biden administration last month, with 60.5% against the agreement and 39.2% voting for it. "For the first time that I can remember, the BRS members voted not to ratify a National Agreement, and with the highest participation rate in BRS history," Michael Baldwin, president of the...

Whatever happened to local food? Have you ever thought about how wildly unrealistic and unsustainable our current diets are? For example, items that don’t grow within the same season are commonly consumed together. Things that don’t grow on the same continent are combined into all sorts of meals. We eat blueberries in December and drink pumpkin spice lattes in the summer. We eat tropical fruit with Midwestern grains. Without the transportation system, there would be absolutely no rhyme or reason to our “normal” diets. What is a typical breakfast in the United States? A typical start to one’s day in...

Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has blocked a joint resolution sponsored by Senator Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.) that would avert a freight-rail strike. Wicker and Burr introduced a resolution that would adopt the recommendations of the presidential emergency board (PEB) appointed by President Biden as binding for a new, national, freight-rail labor contract. The PEB recommended a 24 percent pay increase over the five-year span of the contract, the largest pay increase in the history of national bargaining. Sanders said, “Rail workers have a right to strike for reliable schedules. They have a right...

In Tuesday's White House press briefing, Karine Jean-Pierre failed to provide much reassurance for American citizens or businesses eyeing the looming threat of a rail worker strike that is shaping up to be something of a repeat of the Biden administration's previous mismanagement of U.S. port backlogs and infant formula shortages. As Vespa explained on Tuesday morning, potential rail disruption is "another looming economic crisis that could strike hard this week," one that "could cost the US economy billions and disrupt virtually all commercial and passenger traffic." So what does the White House have to say about the situation? Well,...

ransomnote: see post #1 for potential impacts on crude oil shipmentsA paralyzing railroad strike that has been brewing since January 2020 may unfold this week. Even if it does not come to pass, railroads had already begun preparations Monday by curtailing some shipments.More than 90,000 rail workers from 13 unions around the United States might strike Friday if the unions that represent them can’t reach a contract agreement with the National Railway Labor Conference, which represents the rail companies. The railroads reached an agreement with the leaders of 11 of the 13 unions, but those unions do not include the...