Unions, railroad officials head to DC as White House urgently

CNN
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With the two sides still unable to reach an agreement and with a freight rail strike looming, union officials and representatives of the railroads are heading to Washington, DC, on Wednesday where they will meet with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, according officials with each union and a Department of Labor spokesperson.

While the sources stressed that the situation remains fluid, the two main unions that have lingering disputes with the railroads – the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division – are expected to send their union chiefs to the meeting.

“Continuing the administration’s sustained engagement and hands-on efforts to encourage the parties to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, tomorrow morning Secretary Walsh will host the rail companies and the unions in Washington, DC at the Department of Labor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The Wednesday meeting puts Walsh at the center of the high stakes effort to avert what would be a debilitating strike that could deal a major blow to the economy.

CNN reported earlier Tuesday that the White House is urgently discussing contingency plans as the threat of a rail shut down looms, with agencies across the federal government working through how they could potentially use federal authority to keep critical supply chains operational as labor talks continue to sit at an impasse.

The work has ramped up in recent days as officials have grown increasingly concerned about a labor strike if freight-rail labor negotiations fail to produce an agreement ahead of Friday’s deadline. And President Joe Biden personally called rail unions and companies on Monday while visiting Boston in an attempt to avert a rail shut down, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

While officials have been closely watching the developments – and have gotten directly involved in an effort to find a resolution – for several weeks, accelerated efforts to plan for a worst case scenario underscore the stakes of an outcome that would lead to massive supply chain disruptions, and dual-pronged political and economic risk.

“The White House is working with other modes of transportation (including shippers, truckers, air freight) to see how they can step in and keep goods moving, in case of a rail shutdown,” a White House official told CNN on Tuesday.

The official added that the administration “has also been working with relevant agencies to assess what supply chains and commodities are most likely to face severe disruptions, and the emergency authorities available to keep goods moving.”

About 60,000 union members who work for the railroad are set to go on strike, including the engineers and conductors who make up the two-person crews on each…