A potential rail workers strike looms again this year with an extra wrinkle—the holiday season could be affected this time.
While there could be a significant impact on passenger traffic as well as moving necessary products across the country, holiday shopping wouldn’t be affected. But the potential effect on the supply chain is harder to pin down.
“We’re now going into the winter season and our nation’s coal shipments and drinking water supply could be impacted. Not to mention holiday travel would be threatened with a shutdown of passenger rail,” said Bindiya Vakil, CEO and co-founder of Resilinc, a supply chain monitoring and analytics firm.
“Forty percent of goods that are shipped long-distance in the U.S. traverse the rail system, and a strike could deliver a catastrophic blow as the economy is still dealing with stresses like supply chain delays, labor shortages and inflation,” Vakil added.
