What a mess already! The Chicago Tribune reports, “Federal law bars a freight railroad strike or lockout before Friday, and Congress could intervene and block a work stoppage if the unions and railroads can’t reach a deal by the end of the week. But Amtrak is only the latest agency to take preemptive steps beforehand. The railroads said they would begin curtailing shipments of hazardous materials and other chemicals Monday to ensure carloads of dangerous products won’t be stranded along the tracks if the trains stop moving. The heads of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division union that represents conductors, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents engineers, criticized that decision as a move to increase pressure on shippers and Congress to intervene.”
What a f***ing disaster this could turn out to be, especially — singularly — for Biden and Democrats. If rail workers strike and Congress intervenes — and they will in order to prevent an economic meltdown — then what will Biden do? Sign legislation forcing union workers back to their jobs? Biden was supposed to be the most union-friendly president ever, which is fine, but this strike could force him to reverse course for the greater good of the nation, and there is no way for him not to come out looking like a hypocrite. God! Right before the midterms. I have no doubt RepubliKKKlans are meddling in union politics to pile on Democrats.