U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg believes a rail worker strike “would not be good” for the economy.
The Biden administration’s goal is to make sure that a rail strike does not happen, the secretary said in a preview clip of his interview with NewsNation On Balance host Leland Vittert, which is set to air Tuesday night.
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The odds of a rail strike occurring have risen dramatically after the largest rail union rejected a labor agreement between the workers and railroads on Monday that would have ended months of stalled negotiations relating to pay and working conditions.
Buttigieg, who assisted with approving an emergency board in July and helping unions reach a tentative agreement in September, said it is necessary for railroads and unions to communicate with each other and reach a decision.
“We’re urging the parties to get to the table and to do whatever it takes to prevent a shutdown,” the secretary said.
SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD), representing the U.S.’s rail conductors, said its members declined to ratify the agreement, citing the “deterioration of quality of life” as a reason for the vote down.
If accepted, it would have featured the largest pay bumps in four decades.
Workers at a dozen unions involved in the railroad negotiations have until Dec. 9, the end of the “cooling off period,” to approve the agreement. While another union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), voted in favor of the agreement, the BLET said it would join SMART-TD if its workers decided to strike.
Combined, the two unions represent 57,000 workers.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark issued a statement on Tuesday referring to the unions as “the grinch who stole Christmas” for going back on the September agreement.
Clark is calling on Congress to impose the emergency board restrictions and “the deal President Biden negotiated and the railroads and union leadership agreed to.”
“In September President Biden, who is a champion of labor, struck a deal with the leadership of the 12 railroad unions and railroads to avert a national rail strike,” Clark said. “But now four unions are going back on their word and threatening to be the grinch who stole Christmas by forcing a national rail strike. … A rail strike would substantially exacerbate inflation and the economic challenges Americans are facing today.”
Buttigieg called the potential shutdown a scenario that is “not acceptable.”
A railway strike would “dramatically impact economic output” and could cost more than $2 billion per day, according to a September report from the Association of American Railroads.
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Buttigieg added that the administration has gotten through the “worst” with shipping backlogs and has made headway on trucking shortages, but it will not be enough to sustain transportation for the country.
“If we don’t have [a] healthy, functioning, strong rail system … It would not be good,” Buttigieg said on whether the economy could survive a shutdown. “We don’t have trucks, or barges, or ships, to make in this country to make up for the rail network.”