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Biden on Railroad Strike: “Giving Big Thumbs Up” to Those Who Have “Run Supply Chain to the Ground”

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Biden has called on Congress to block a potential railroad strike.

MEL BUER, mel@therealnews.com @mel_buer
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Buer is an editor at The Real News Network and has been covering the potential railroad strike.

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ, max@therealnews.com
Alvarez is editor-in-chief of The Real News and author of The Work of Living.

He also hosts the Working People Podcast and said today: “Two things everyone needs to understand: 1) It is BECAUSE they always counted on Biden/Congress forcing a deal down workers’ throats that rail carriers saw no reason to bargain in good faith for 2-plus years or to change the profit-maximizing practices that have blown up the supply chain.

“So, if you just started caring about the crisis on the railroads and were hand wringing about striking workers hurting the supply chain, I got news for you: Biden just gave a big thumbs up to the people who have already run the supply chain into the ground.

“You’re already paying for their corporate malfeasance. Demolishing their workforce, making trains longer/more dangerous, risking more derailments, price gouging shippers (a lot of businesses have no choice but to use rail, no one is out here building new rail lines, so the rail carriers can do whatever they want. They have essentially formed a non-competitive oligopolistic cartel.) They’re making more money than ever and you’re paying the costs passed onto consumers while workers’ lives are obliterated and people quit in record numbers.

“You just never cared about it until now. Personally, as someone who’s covered this story all year by talking to workers, I think it’s because our media have failed to cover this accurately (or at all) for years.

“The second thing to understand: This whole process has been a dismal example of workers having their voices silenced. Again, railroaders have gone three years without a new contract and the carriers never bargained seriously with unions because they expected this result would save them.”