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With Joanne Kenen’s
PRESSURE COOKER – The imminent option of a national rail strike is bad news for an already fragile economy. And that’s especially bad for Democrats.
Democrats have scored a few victories lately, but an economic surprise like this (an industry estimate predicts that closing a railroad could charge $2 billion a day, threatening to repair U. S. supply chains).
Biden’s management is well aware of this. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh took steps to avert a catastrophe, and President Joe Biden worked by phone today, speaking directly to businesses and unions. With Biden posing as the “most pro-union president of all time. “this is a delicate scenario as management seeks a deal while it appears the White House supports workers.
To break down the confusing politics of all this and what to keep in mind below, Nightly Slack with transportation reporter Tanya Snyder.
Tell us how we got here.
The railways and the thirteen unions representing their staff have been running since November 2019 to agree on a new employment contract. When the talks broke down, Biden appointed a council of arbitrators, the Emergency Presidential Council, to draft a compromise, which they did for the last time. month. The railway and top industry unions have reached an agreement in precept or seem to be on the verge of reaching an agreement in precept based on the recommendations of the BEP.
But two of the unions, SMART’s transportation division; the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Railway and Transport Workers; and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) – insist on adjustments to what they call draconian new work standards for machinists and machinists, such as assistance policies that may not even allow staff to take the time to go to the doctor. don’t settle for a contract that doesn’t come with those adjustments, and BEP hasn’t resolved those issues.
Why is so much at stake?
Almost 40% of long-distance tonne-miles of cargo are transported by rail, more than any other mode of transport. Road transport cannot absorb all this. A work stoppage would make our pre-supply chain concerns look like children’s stuff. This can cause shortages and an increase in prices. And remember, harvest season is fast approaching. point of killing their own cattle because the grain they use to feed their animals simply hasn’t arrived. Food rotted in the wagons and the shelves were empty.
Not to mention the fact that suburban rail and Amtrak also operate on freight lines, so there may also be major disruptions in passenger rail transportation.
So this can potentially mean a political crisis for the Biden administration and, by extension, for Democrats, less than two months before Election Day.
Industry groups, from the Chamber of Commerce to the Consumer Brands Association, truck foyer and fertilizer foyer, have called on Congress to interfere if unions and railroads fail to reach a deal by Friday, when an era of federally mandated “cooling. “it ends and a strike becomes possible. Labor law works for railroads more than other industries, and the Railroad Labor Act allows Congress to interfere and order its own solution if the parties fail to reach an agreement; however, Congress actually prefers not to.
The unions, of course, are calling on Congress to stay out of this, because the risk of retaining their paintings is the biggest lever they have to force the hand of employers. Therefore, the Democrats are in a delicate situation. No one needs a strike that would cripple the economy, obviously, but intervening in a way that sweeps away hard work is also a smart look for Democrats less than two months before the election.
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It seems management is taking this very seriously: Walsh cancelled his trip to Ireland this week to remain in talks, and other cabinet officials are heavily involved. Have we read how scared the White House is?
The leadership has made each and every effort, beginning with the appointment of the Presidential Emergency Council, on this issue.
Regardless, the president scored some big victories recently: the inflation-cutting bill was passed, gasoline costs are falling, infrastructure dollars are pouring into the streets, but all those gains may be overshadowed if the railroads close and the chain of origin collapsed.
Biden’s management is also in an attractive position here, with Biden’s pro-union momentum. Is it conceivable that management officials would balance an agreement to avoid this crisis, while seeming to help workers?
That’s what they’re looking to do. They are still pushing for a solution between the railroads and the unions and hope that Congress doesn’t have to get involved. But Congress can also be a path in favor of unions: it can demand a solution that includes BEP recommendations AND adjustments to hard work regulations that unions seek.
What should we be on the lookout for before Friday’s deadline?
All eyes are on the two unions that constitute engineers and drivers, SMART-TD and BLET. They cannot settle for a contract that their members will not ratify, and their members have been furious with the railways for a long time. seek all the concessions from the railways that would give the staff a sufficient victory for them to be in a position to settle for a deal.
At The Hill, we take a look at the corresponding committees to see if they are already running on the emergency law for a strike and what that law would say and what path it would take to pass it.
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Trump fights the DOJ in a dispute over classified documents, while the DOJ approves a special teacher: Donald Trump today suggested that a federal ruling be passed to uphold his order that prevented the Justice Department from continuing its fraudulent investigation into a highly sensitive government. hidden records in the basement of your property in Mar-a-Lago. The case, a reaction to prosecutors’ warning that U. S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s unorthodox directive preventing FBI investigators from accessing files seized on Aug. 8 undermines national security as Trump approved to run the course. Also in a new case tonight, the Justice Department said it approves Chief Judge Raymond Dearie, one of the applicants Trump’s legal team has proposed as a special teacher to review the seized Mar-a-Lago documents, though many issues remain over the scope of the review and pending appeal.
The Podesta-led White House climate enforcement team: Biden will announce the creation of a new White House team, led by Senior Adviser John Podesta, that will oversee spending on the $369 billion in climate incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act, in accordance with an executive order received through POLITICO. The new office, which will work with the White House’s existing Office of National Climate Policy, will structure the law’s subsidy programs, clarify the language of tax credits, and promote their economic and economic function. potential.
GUN SHY – Today, Christine Lambrecht, the newest of a long line of German defense ministers with little or no military experience, made it clear that Ukraine’s gains in the war field would adjust to Berlin’s refusal to supply the country with much-needed tanks.
Lambrecht, pronouncing what was presented as a “historic” deal in Berlin, criticized Russia for its “horrible invasion war” and said it is time for Germany to take a “leading role” in European security. Helping Ukraine win does not appear to be a component of that strategy, writes Matthew Karnitschnig.
“Berlin’s hesitation, its inaction, seriously questions the price and the alliance with Germany,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview published in the current edition of the weekly. The Polish leader, whose country has been among the main arms suppliers. To Ukraine, he added that “many other heads of government in Europe” shared his view.
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Welcome to “Radar Sweep,” a new segment of POLITICO Nightly that will track notions of web corners that might not make headlines.
THE HOME FRONT – News of Ukraine’s counteroffensive looks good. The reports imply that they are pushing back Russian troops, thanks in part to Western aid and weapons. But its economy is in a deep abyss. In his Newsletter Chartbook, Adam Tooze explains precisely why “there are any and all explanations for why to worry about a social and political crisis. . . which will greatly aggravate Kyiv’s difficulties in continuing the war, regardless of its progress on the battlefield. “
MASK PONIDA, MASK REMOVED: the sign in Lisbon about the necessary mask first threw me away, until I remembered that it meant “mask”, without makeup. But when I looked around, I saw many more people wearing masks than masks, Joanne Kenen, resident reporter for the Commonwealth Fund at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, emails Nightly.
My family had, for us, an unprecedented amount of remote travel at the end of the summer. My oldest son and son-in-law were on holiday in Spain (where they were lucky enough to marry a Valencia condo) My youngest son was in Denmark, starting a semester abroad that he hoped would offset some of the strain of his covid-infused first two years of college. My husband was finishing a nephew’s wedding in Israel; I went to some other nephew’s wedding in the captivating city of Sintra, Portugal. After experiencing more than a million deaths in the United States, low vaccination rates, and deep political divisions over the pandemic, my circle of family members (and I think the most of my friends and colleagues) had assumed that Europeans and Israelis were far more diligent in masking an era of weakened but ever-present pandemic. since we are here at home.
But our family organization WhatsApp contact network immediately exploded. “No one wears a mask here,” the Spanish group reported. Israel said, “None here,” called the Copenhagen student (who also sent us pictures of herring). He couldn’t even find quick control on or off campus. later, he had to exercise Sweden to buy checks. (It’s negative. )
In Portugal, it’s a bit more complicated. Masks are still mandatory on public transport. And when there is a driving force or a driving force, this rule is implemented and respected. You can’t even get on a bus without a mask. they would stop if they had their faces uncovered. They all use them in intercity exercises, their (best) edition of Amtrak. But on the Lisbon metro and the small regional exercise lines, where masks are mandatory but there is no one on board to enforce regulations. there were only a handful of other people dressed in masks, pretty much the same thing I would see in D. C. In department stores and tourist sites, masks were almost non-existent. (The same is true for barriers and handrails, but that’s another story. ) And when other people wear them in Portugal, they wear surgical masks, not the most protective N95s.
Spain, Portugal and Denmark have vaccination rates particularly higher than ours; Israel, which has had a wonderful start, is more comparable to our rate (slightly lower, according to Our World in Data, or several percentage issues higher, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker). This, combined with the more wonderful social solidarity we have had around the pandemic, gives them more protection, fewer deaths, and fewer serious illnesses. But they also face permanent variants, permanent interruptions. And like us, they are tired of masks. But not, apparently, mascara.
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