The day I wrote this column, I had trains on my mind. I am guessing more than a few of the readers of this eMagazine were thinking about trains too. That day, members of SMART Transportation Division, the largest rail union in the country, voted down a tentative agreement brokered in September by the Biden Administration to avert a rail strike, joining three other unions voting “no” among the 12 that had voted on the agreement.
A strike in the rail industry poses very serious economic consequences for the chemical sector and the larger economy. A recent economic analysis conducted by the American Chemistry Council reports that “a strike lasting one month would likely put a major chill on several leading economic indicators through the first half of 2023.” The report projected job losses of 700,000 across multiple industries and economic sectors, a jump in the Producer Price Index of 4%, and contraction of the Gross Domestic Product of one percentage point. I hope by the time you read this column, people involved in the current situation were able to reach an agreement and avoid yet another major disruption in the chemical supply chain.