On September 15, 2022, local time, in Maryland, USA, a MARC train arrived at Monocacy MARC station in the early morning. Major U.S. rail companies have reached an interim agreement with trade unions to avoid national rail strikes, thereby slowing or stopping passenger and commuting traffic. (Visual China/Photo)
About 125,000 railway workers in the United States were originally scheduled to hold a national strike on September 16, 2022, but a temporary agreement made the workers' movement "emergency brake".
However, the crisis has not been completely resolved, and the labor and capital have only temporarily settled, and the US railway industry still has many problems.
"Emergency Brake"
US President Biden is not enough to rest assured. At around 9 p.m. Eastern Time on September 14, 2022, Biden called the negotiation site and complained about the huge losses that the railway strike would bring.
Starting from the morning of that day, the US Railway Corporation and the union representatives held negotiations in Washington, with senior government officials such as U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh (Marty Walsh) present.
After 20 hours of verbal confrontation, the two sides reached a temporary agreement in the early morning of the next day: the investors agreed to increase the treatment of workers, and the new agreement will increase the wages of railway workers by 24% between 2020 and 2024, and the workers agreed to suspend the strike.
"The American economy and the American people usher in an important victory." Biden immediately issued a statement to welcome the negotiation results.
If the two sides have broken down, the United States may usher in the first national railway strike in 30 years. According to CNN, the strike will cause more than 7,000 trains to stop, and the railway system that carries nearly 30% of the United States' cargo transportation will be paralyzed.
Currently, the main modes of transportation in the United States are road and aviation, but rail transportation still accounts for 40% of the total long-distance freight. In big cities such as New York and Washington, many office workers also take passenger trains to and from get off work.
During his tenure in the Senate, Biden also often took trains to and from Delaware and the capital Washington, DC, so he was also nicknamed "Amtrak Joe".
After the news of the US railway workers' strike spread, the "American Railway Joe" faced pressure from all parties. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Railway Administration (FRA), the general strike will cause $2 billion a day and endanger energy, agriculture, manufacturing and retail industries.
"This is a huge hot potato." Andrew Wheaton, a professor at Cornell School of Industry and Labor Relations, believes that "the strike in the rail industry may raise the prices of food and fertilizers, and the prices of anything transported by rail may rise."
The US economy is suffering from high inflation . According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by another 8.3% in August 2022.
US food producers have also warned Congress that about 40% of U.S. fertilizer supply must be transported by rail to farms. If the railway is shut down, the grain storage facilities will be overwhelmed, and farmers have little conditions to store crops, newly harvested crops cannot be shipped to food processing plants, and the supply of fertilizer needed for autumn crops cannot be shipped.
"This is equivalent to hitting the starting point and end point of the food supply chain at the same time, which is a double blow," said Max Fisher, chief economist at the National Cereals and Feed Association.
The energy industry is the first to bear the brunt. Once the freight railway is shut down, the supply of coal, ore, oil, etc. will be affected, and power plants, refineries, etc. will not be able to operate normally.
The last US rail workers strike was in 1992, causing US$1 billion in losses. With the strong intervention of the Bush administration, the strike lasted only three days.
Thirty years later, the Biden administration is also on guard against the general strike of railway workers. In July 2022, more than 99.5% of the members of the Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted in favor of the general strike.
In order to avoid the railway system shutdown, Biden signed an executive order at the time to appoint a Presidential Emergency Affairs Committee (PEB) to interfere with the negotiations between labor and capital, and demand that both the union and the railway system enter a 60-day "cooling-off period".
Ten of the 12 unions in the US rail system agreed to sign a settlement. However, the locomotive engineers and trainmen, the most powerful and crucial to rail transport, remained dissatisfied with the terms of sick leave and attendance, and planned to launch a general strike.
It was not until the early morning of September 16, 2022, on the eve of the end of the "cooling-off period", that the negotiations between the two sides made progress. However, " Washington Post " revealed that the possibility of a general strike still exists, and the agreement still needs to be approved by union members' votes, and "there are still multiple steps to go."
"We were forced to the point where we could not work by "
Since the construction of the first railway in the United States in 1828, dissatisfaction among workers and other practitioners has been one after another. In 1877, a general strike across the United States broke out. At that time, the railway companies were seriously corruption, and workers' wages were constantly deducted and labor intensity was increased. The general strike soon spread from Martinsburg, West Virginia to many states such as Maryland, , Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
The then-President of the Republican Party Rutherford Burchard Hayes sent troops to suppress workers, resulting in the death and injury of many workers, and the general strike ended in failure. However, the railway strike in 1877 also prompted workers to strengthen organizational construction, laying the foundation for the later establishment of the trade union .
"Why are rail workers like me planning to strike this Friday (September 16)?" American rail worker Stows wrote in the News Weekly , "Railway companies sacrificed their livelihoods and safety interests, and we were forced to the point where we could not continue to work."
The American rail industry has been carrying out large-scale layoffs. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of railway workers in the country has dropped from more than 600,000 in 1970 to about 150,000 in 2022. The adoption of new train operation control technologies such as
automation and artificial intelligence has prompted railway companies to continuously reduce operating positions. From November 2018 to December 2020, the U.S. rail industry lost more than 40,000 jobs, and the layoff rate of some rail companies once reached 29%. In order to reduce staff, some railway companies have also adopted methods such as lengthening the train length and connecting two trains into one.
"These measures obviously increase the accident rate of trains, and the lives of train personnel are threatened." Stowers also revealed that many railway companies also illegally hire foreign immigrants, which also reduces the salary competitiveness of the railway's "regular forces".
is in the worst inflation in more than 40 years, and American rail workers feel their wallets shrink. So, the union requested a salary increase.
In the entire transportation industry, railway workers' income is at an upper-middle level. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the median hourly wage for railway workers is $31, far higher than the $25 in the automotive industry. Usually, a 20-year-old railway worker with only a high school diploma or general education level (GED) can receive a six-figure annual salary.
The ranks of American rail workers are still shrinking. What made the railway union even more dissatisfied is that the railway company is too harsh on workers' leave and other aspects.
"I often work thirteen or fourteen hours on the train, often all night long. 24 hours a day, and I need to be on call, and usually arrive within two hours when I receive the call. If I need to take a day off to see a doctor or take my children to play, I have to use the leave right." said Stows, a railway worker.
Many railway companies implement the attendance point system. Workers may not only be deducted points if they take leave to see a doctor, but may even be "swept out of the house".
According to the documents released by United Pacific Railway Corporation (UPR) in 2021, the initial points of railway workers are 30 points. If you take a day of sick leave, you will be deducted 3 to 8 points. If you refuse the tasks assigned by the company, you will be deducted 10 points.
" Wall Street plaything "
Judging from the negotiation progress announced by US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh on September 15, the requirements for wage increases and paid holidays proposed by the union have been met, but the points system still exists.
A nationwide rail strike "urgent brake" at the last moment, but the US rail system still has many problems.Although American Railways' profit margins are rising steadily, its market share is shrinking rapidly, and its service quality has been criticized.
The financiers who control the U.S. rail industry have always pursued low investment and high returns, and a management system called "precision dispatch rail" (PSR) has been blamed. This is a system designed in 1993 by the late former CEO of CSX, E. Hunter Harrison, which requires freight trains to operate on a fixed schedule like passenger trains.
Before this, the freight train has to wait for the arrival of the goods. According to the "precise railway dispatch" management system, the goods have to wait for the train to arrive at the station. In this way, the inventory of freight cars and locomotives has decreased, the workers employed have decreased, and the operating costs of railway companies have dropped significantly.
According to statistics from the President's Emergency Committee, since the implementation of the "precision dispatch railway", train lengths have increased from an average of 7,000 feet to 9,500 feet, and train shifts have decreased by nearly one-third, and the profit margins of railway companies have also risen. However, the fees paid by the shipper have increased, and the cargo consignment period has also been extended.
"Precise dispatch of railroads (PSR) cannot increase freight volume, nor improve operations and reduce emissions. On the contrary, this is a business strategy promoted by Wall Street to increase short-term profits." U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter De Facio earlier wrote in Fortune magazine, "In the process of more than half a century of decline, rail companies have been Wall Street's playthings."
Most American rail companies are controlled by Wall Street financial institutions, and most profits flow to the pockets of "financial tycoons". In recent years, Wall Street financiers have repeatedly split, reorganized and sold railway companies.
Although it has been squeezed by the aviation industry, railways are still the most profitable industrial sector in the United States. According to the American Transportation Journal, as of December 2019, the profit margin of US rail was 51%.
compared with it, real estate ranked second at 41%, while tobacco ranked third with a profit margin of 31%. Since 2004, profits in the U.S. rail industry have increased by 676%, while railroad shares have risen by 1,250%.
"This rate of return is generally only achieved by criminal enterprises." Bloomberg columnist Thomas Black wrote, "The profit margins of the railway industry cannot be further improved, otherwise it will cause greater harm to consumers and workers."
" The opportunity for nationalization of railways may be ripe "
Hidden behind railway companies, Wall Street's "financial tycoon" made a lot of money, but the US railway industry has accumulated many problems.
"Train tickets are more expensive than planes and drives slower than cars." Many Americans often complain about railway passenger transport. Not only are the trains outdated and dirty, it cannot be compared with the speed, comfort and modernization of aircraft and intercity buses. The construction of high-speed rail in the United States is even more lagging behind.
According to data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation Railway Administration (FRA), the on-time rate of U.S. rail passenger transport in 2021 is less than 70%.
The United States' rail passenger transport is mainly managed by Amtrak. In 1970, after the Pennsylvania Railway, the largest railway company in the northeastern United States, went bankrupt, the Nixon administration took over the establishment of a public-private joint venture Amtrak, but it still suffered losses year by year, and the federal government also provided hundreds of millions of dollars in operating subsidies every year. The freight industry with higher profit margins is controlled by four major railway companies, including BNSF Railroad, CSX Railroad, Norfolk Southern Railroad (NSR C) and United Pacific Railroad (UPR C). The total traffic volume accounts for nearly 90% of the total U.S. rail transport volume.
"The time for nationalization of railways may be ripe." Philip Longman, a researcher at the U.S. Open Markets Institute (OMI), wrote in Washington Monthly that since the construction of railways in the United States is a private business, it has led to a lack of unified planning. Private railway companies have repeatedly built high-profit lines while ignoring remote areas, which has led to the hindering of the latter's economic development.
In the history of the United States, there is indeed a precedent for the federal government to invest in the construction of railways.In the mid-19th century, the federal government once invested in subsidizing railway construction, but private railway companies had to "serve all customers on equal terms" in return. During the First World War, the Woodrow Wilson administration also briefly nationalized railways. However, after President Carter lifted the control policy on trains, planes and trucks in the 1970s, in 1995, then-U.S. President Clinton closed the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) responsible for managing train routes and timetables.
"Given that railroads are the most profitable industrial sector in the United States, nationalizing railroad tracks is an ideal solution." On September 16, 2022, Timothy Noah wrote in the New Republic magazine that large-scale fiscal subsidies can only protect backwardness.
Whether it is the Wall Street financial interest group behind the railway company or the railway union organizations with a large number of people, they are all "vote warehouses" and "money bags" that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party dare not commit crimes easily. During the campaign, one of the promises made by Trump is to improve the infrastructure construction in the United States. His slogan "Return to Manufacturing" is especially popular among the industrial workers of " Rust Zone ". But most people believe that the United States has a vast land and sparse population, and building a railway is not cost-effective.
In May 2017, Trump, who had just entered the White House, said he was interested in building a high-speed railway. Two years later, Trump criticized the high-speed rail as a "green disaster" and canceled the $1 billion federal grant for the construction of the California high-speed rail. Of the Trump administration’s $538 billion “alternative infrastructure program,” only $20 billion is used to improve the railway situation.
In comparison, "Artecko" is much more generous. In the "American Rescue Plan" launched by the Biden administration in April 2021, Amtrak alone received at least $1.7 billion in federal funding.
However, "blood transfusion" as mentioned above is not considered a good way to save the American Railway.
Special written by Southern Weekend Liang Qingchuan
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