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A total of 10 railroad unions have reached either tentative or final agreements on new labor contracts in the ongoing negotiations between 12 unions and the National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents 30 American freight railroads. However, two major unions - the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers' Transport Division (SMART-TD) - still maintain a hardline stance. They could stage a strike when a cooling-off period comes to an end on Friday. Out of the 12 unions' 112,000 members, some 90,000 belong to either the BLET or SMART-TD.

In preparation for sudden strikes and service suspensions, Class-1 railroads have decided to have transport control, while continuing to have talks with the BLET and SMART-TD. More specifically, they started managing and securing the shipment of hazardous and security-sensitive materials yesterday.

Class-1 railroads operate over 7,000 long-distance freight services a day, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). If they are suspended, an economic loss of more than $2 billion a day could be incurred. The AAR has warned that if this is the case, the economic loss could lead to closing factories, losing employment, accelerating inflations and so on, and eventually causing devastating damage.


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