Iron Horse Brigate Rosse

Headlines last 2 days allude to the “Biden Government” suddenly being all concerned and worried about the 115,000 members of the Ironworkers, Railway workers and some 10 other unions going on strike.

Mind you they have a legitimate grievance with the operators. When COVID 1.0 hit, everyone panicked and these unions agreed to halt all pay increases and keep working 24/7 through the “crisis”. Well here we are almost 3 years on with raging inflation and they want their postponed increased wages. Who can blame them?

This kind of snagged my interest, seeing I worked in the RR equipment manufacturing sector for seven years back in the 1990’s.

Most of America has no knowledge of the present day rail industry nor how it impacts daily life while being pretty much invisible to most. One has to pause to consider the following:

1, With the pipelines for transport of oil and fuels being blocked by Biden, an ever larger amount of oils is moved by rail.
2. Roughly 60% of our electricity still comes from coal (helloo EV industry) , the rest from Hydro, Nuclear, Natural Gas and lastly, intermittent solar and wind. That coal moves from the mines to power plants mainly by rail.
3. If you plan to purchase a car, truck or pretty much any machinery, it moved across the nation by rail.
4. All that Chinese and other imported material, movers by rail from coasts to inland.
5. Food (as in beef and pork) moves to the processing plants by rail then onward by rail and truck. Note that many of the refrigerated truck trailers move piggyback on rail which is more efficient, then gets delivered to end point by semi local haulers with tractor trailers.
6. Want to supply an undeclared war? Why all those tons of munitions and other flash bang stuff, yes, it moves by rail.

So, why all this sudden concern?
Well, if you think it is over feeding, warming and maintaining an economy for the population you are grievously in error.

The sole reason for the sudden concern is optics ahead of the midterm elections and money, both required to support the corruptocrats of both parties. Let’s guess how many unions will be pissed off were all rail transport suddenly cease? Pretty much all of them perhaps with the exception of the NEA and SEIU government unions.

My assessment of the whole tempest is that it is being created and managed for political gain. Keep an eye out for recommendations and full court press by the government controlled media bleating “the government” must bail out the RR and send them cash for wage increases to “ensure that commerce keeps moving”. The fun part is that what Biden has just done (see news link) is simply delay by executive order a work stoppage. All that does is push the coming strike closer to the mid-term elections.

Of course, with the unspoken rule that all them union folks (all unions, not just the RR) will be kicking back 10% to the D party, or “the big guy”, take your pick.

Pass the popcorn, this is going to get more interesting.

Apologies for using CNN business, it was open and available for added background.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/business/railroad-strike-threat/index.html