More than 400 groups have signed onto a letter asking congressional leaders to intervene in the ongoing railroad standoff that threatens to turn into crippling rail strike that could inflict billions of dollars’ worth of economic damage.
The Nov. 28 letter (pdf)—addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—warns that the looming strike would be “extremely damaging to American families and our economy, costing $2 billion per day.”
That staggering cost estimate comes from an analysis by the Association of American Railroads (pdf), which warned that a potential rail strike and ensuing shutdown could freeze a large proportion of U.S. cargo shipments, impede supplies of food and fuel, cause transportation snarls, and stoke inflation….