THE United States’ largest rail union has voted against a tentative contract agreement reached with rail management in September, raising the likelihood of a strike in the upcoming month, which can cause significant damage to the US economy.
Train and engine service members of the transportation division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) narrowly voted to reject the deal, while members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted to ratify the agreement and SMART-TD yardmasters voted to ratify their national agreement, the unions said last Monday.
The split vote by the two largest unions, representing conductors and engineers, could put pressure on Congress to intervene to prevent a strike ahead of the holiday season.
‘The ball is now in the railroads’ court. Let’s see what they do. They can settle this at the bargaining table,’ said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson in a statement, adding, ‘This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike.’
The National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents the nation’s freight railroads in talks, said the ‘continued, near-term threat’ of a strike ‘will require that freight railroads and passenger carriers soon begin to take responsible steps to safely secure the network in advance of any deadline.’
The railroads, however, showed no sign of being willing to reopen talks, saying, ‘Congress may need to intervene – just as it has in the past – to prevent disruption of the national rail system.’
The standoff between US rail operators and their union workers disrupted flows of hazardous materials, such as chemicals used in fertiliser and disrupted US passenger railroad Amtrak service in September as railroads prepared for a possible work stoppage. Such an industrial action, business groups have warned, could strand vital shipments of food and fuel.
Seven of the 12 unions involved in the talks previously approved the deal that was based on a recommendation from a presidential emergency board, while three unions previously had voted against it, but agreed to extend a strike deadline until early December.
Beginning on December 9, SMART-TD would be allowed to go on strike or the rail carriers would be permitted to lock out workers, unless Congress intervenes.
If there is a strike by any of the unions that voted against the deal, BLET and other rail unions that have ratified agreements have pledged to honour picket lines.
The Biden administration helped avert a service cut-off by hosting last-minute contract talks in September at the Labour Department that led to a tentative contract deal.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last month ‘any shutdown would be completely unacceptable. It is the responsibility of the parties involved to resolve this issue.’
The White House did not immediately comment on Monday.
Last week, the US Chamber of Commerce said Congress should step in to prevent a potential rail disruption, warning it would be catastrophic for the economy.
Automaker General Motors has said a halt would force it to stop production of some trucks within about a day.
A rail shutdown could freeze almost 30% of US cargo shipments by weight, stoke inflation, cost the American economy as much as $2 billion per day and unleash a cascade of transport woes affecting US energy, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and retail sectors.
The unions represent 115,000 workers at railroads.
While labour unions criticise the railroads’ sick leave and attendance policies and the lack of paid sick days for short-term illness, the railroads say the deal has the most ‘generous wage package in almost 50 years of national rail negotiations.’
- Amazon plans to lay off ten thousand employees in corporate and technology jobs amid cost-cutting review and a ‘worsening macroeconomic environment’, as inflation in the United States is at a 40-year record high.
The online retailer giant plans to eliminate jobs beginning this week with staff working at its human-resources and retail divisions which represent 3% of Amazon’s corporate staff.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology announced earlier this month the company has hired a freeze on corporate jobs. She wrote, ‘We’re facing an unusual macro-economic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy.’
Amazon’s planned retrenchment during the critical holiday shopping season shows how quickly the souring global economy has put pressure on it to trim businesses that have been overstaffed or underdelivering for years.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported an annual operation loss of more than $5 billion in Amazon’s device unit in recent years. The company has decided to stop investing on new capabilities for Alexa as the voice assistant is only used for a fixed number of tasks.
Shares of Amazon have lost more than 40% of their value this year.
Amazon had doubled its work force in two years during the Covid crisis, which produced the company’s most profitable era on record, as consumers flocked to online shopping and companies to its cloud computing services.
But, Amazon’s growth slowed earlier this year to the lowest rate in two decades. The company faced high costs from decisions to over invest and rapidly expand, while high inflation dented sales.
A projected downturn for the US economy has forced tech giants to significantly slow their pace of hiring or freeze it altogether. Last week, Meta announced it would cut 11 thousand employees whereas Twitter laid off thousands of employees in departments across the company.
- Iran is planning to ship another 2,000 cars to Venezuela, an Iranian trade official says, in a further sign of a burgeoning relationship that appears to be developing beyond energy.
It comes after the first shipment of 1,000 Saina and Quik models built by Iranian company SADRA headed to Venezuela from Bandar Abbas in southern Iran last week, in a ceremony attended by visiting Venezuelan Minister of Transport Ramón Velásquez.
‘We agreed to export more than 100,000 cars from Iran to Venezuela within five years,’ head of the Americas bureau of the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran Zahra Abiri said in remarks published on Wednesday.
Both Iran and Venezuela are heavily sanctioned by the United States, and this has brought them closer. Iran regularly sends oil to crisis-stricken Venezuela, and has also loaded Venezuelan oil for sale abroad. Venezuela is rich in oil, but its refinery industry has crumbled. The country announced in February the start of direct flights between Tehran and Caracas.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited Iran in June during his trip to the region, where the two countries signed a 20-year cooperation plan.
Abiri said in the 20-year agreement document, the most immediate cooperation between the two sides has been planned for the next two years.
‘Iran and Venezuela are under US sanctions, both of which are members of OPEC and can cooperate effectively to neutralise the sanctions,’ she said.
‘Venezuela has more than 33 million hectares of arable land with plenty of water,’ she added, indicating that Iran can use the potential for overseas cultivation with the aim of improving its food security.
Abiri touched on Iran’s energy contracts to improve Venezuela’s electricity system, its sending of medicine, especially for curing cancer, exchange of scientific cooperation and investment of more than 40 Iranian companies in Venezuela.
Iran and Venezuela, both petroleum-rich OPEC members, have found solidarity in coordinated geopolitical, economic, and military manoeuvres against shared common enemy the United States.
On Tuesday, another Iranian official said Venezuela has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran to help recover 10,000 megawatts of power generation in the South American country.
The agreement is about to be taken up during a planned visit by Iran’s Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf to Venezuela and brought to the execution phase, CEO of Iran Powerplant Repairs Company Massoud Moradi said.
As Venezuela’s economy begins a rebound, the government seeks to rebuild a crumbling electricity grid plagued by constant blackouts and a lack of maintenance in the face of US sanctions.
Gas- and diesel-burning generation facilities that serve the capital Caracas as well as those that supply electricity to infrastructure used by the oil industry are central to President Maduro’s bid to put his country’s economic ship on an even keel after years of turbulence.
‘Venezuela has announced the need to repair 10,000 megawatts of power plants, and a memorandum of understanding has been signed in this regard,’ Moradi said.
‘Given Iran’s potential in the field of power plant repairs, there is the ability to complete the 10,000 megawatts of Venezuela’s repair needs,’ he added.
The repairs will help Venezuela overcome regular blackouts and years of rationing, as well as improve power supply in oil-producing areas hit by outages.
President Maduro reportedly plans to invest around $1.5 billion by 2025 to rebuild the country’s generation system which has a capacity to produce roughly 32,000 megawatts of electricity.
The national grid is highly dependent on the huge Guri hydroelectric facility in southern Venezuela that produces as much as 80% of the power, but has been ravaged by years of mismanagement.
