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Soy group applauds Biden’s call for action against rail strike

An agricultural group is applauding the Biden administration for calling on Congress to stop a likely railroad strike.  Mike Steenhoek with the U.S. Soy Transportation Coalition says even the threat of a strike will halt the economic activity, and certain products like fertilizer would stop moving up to a week before the strike begins. “If it takes X many days for a round-trip journey to occur, and if that time period exceeds the amount of time between the current day and that potential railroad strike, you’re not going to deploy, whether it’s the shipper or whether it’s the railroad, you’re not going to deploy that delivery.”

President Biden issued a statement Monday saying Congress should immediately adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators without any modifications or delay to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown. 

Late Monday evening, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack also issued a statement supporting Congressional action to ensure the railroads keep moving. He says, “I take seriously overriding the ratification procedures and the views of those who voted against the agreement. But in this case – where the economic impact of a shutdown would hurt American agriculture and millions of other working people and families –Congress must use its powers to adopt this deal. There is no time to waste on political gamesmanship or the search for a more perfect resolution.” Vilsack also says, “I join the President in calling on Congress to quickly pass legislation adopting the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators – without any modifications or delay – to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown. The U.S. food and agricultural industry relies heavily on rail networks for the transport of inputs and raw materials and for taking products to market. A rail shutdown would have significant and long-lasting effects on some sectors of American food and agriculture and could be devastating to parts of our economy.”

Steenhoek tells Brownfield a rail strike during the biggest time for exports would harm agriculture. “We need to have rail service operating at full throttle. We definitely do not need it to take a step backward. A strike would be a significant step backward.”

The White House says the railroad labor deal brokered a month ago provides a historic 24% pay raise for rail workers, improved health care benefits, and allows workers to take unscheduled leave for medical needs.