Railroad Strike Averted After Marathon Talks Reach Tentative Deal
(CNN) – Unions and management reached a tentative deal early Thursday, averting a freight railroad strike that had threatened to cripple US supply chains and push prices higher for many goods.The deal with unions representing more than 50,000 engineers and conductors was announced just after 5 a.m.
ET in a statement from the White House, which called it “an important win for our economy and the American people.”A verbal agreement between the two sides was reached at about 2:30 a.m.
ET according to sources, and the final hours were spent getting the details worked out.That concluded about 20 hours of talks between the unions’ leadership and the railroads’ labor negotiators hosted by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
They began their meeting Wednesday morning with the clock ticking down to a strike that had been set to start at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday.President Joe Biden called in personally to talk to negotiators around 9 p.m.
