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U.S. President Joe Biden announced the deal in a statement early
Thursday morning, calling it "a win for tens of thousands of
rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to
ensure that America's families and communities got deliveries of
what have kept us going during these difficult years."
The tentative deal now goes to the unions to be voted on,
according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Even if
those votes fail, a rail shutdown that could have happened as
soon as midnight Friday has been averted for several weeks, this
person said.
A rail shutdown could freeze almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments
by weight, stoke inflation, cost the U.S. economy as much as $2
billion per day and unleash a cascade of transport woes
affecting the U.S. energy, agriculture, manufacturing,
healthcare and retail sectors.
Biden administration officials hosted labor contract talks into
the night on Wednesday aiming to secure an agreement with the
unions which represent 115,000 workers.
Biden himself called U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and the
negotiators around 9 p.m. to advance talks, according to a
person aware of the negotiations who said they lasted 20 hours.
Failing to reach a deal before the deadline of one minute after
midnight on Friday would have cleared the way for legal worker
strikes.
Negotiations between railroads including Union Pacific,
Berkshire Hathaway's BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Kansas City
Southern and a dozen unions had stretched for more than two
years, leading Biden to appoint an emergency board to help break
the impasse.
Shares of U.S. railroad operators rose between 2.4% and 2.9% in
pre-market trade.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Jahnavi Nidumolu
and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Jason Neely, Devika
Syamnath, Shounak Dasgupta and Heather Timmons; Editing by
Catherine Evans)
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