bigpicture
Peter Bradley
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Senior Editor, Special Projects & eContent
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Mark Solomon
Senior Editor
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Susan Lacefield
Associate Managing Editor
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James Cooke
Editor at Large
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George Weimer
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Erica E. Mac Donald
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Columnists:
Clifford F. Lynch
Don Jacobson
Shelly Safian
Kenneth B. Ackerman
Art Van Bodegraven
Barry Brandman
An averted strike and logistics’
critical role
Gary Master
Publisher
gmaster@dcvelocity.com
Mitch Mac Donald
Group Editorial Director
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Jim Indelicato
Group Publisher
jindelicato@dcvelocity.com
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LAST MONTH, SOMETHING THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN ONCE AGAIN
demonstrated the value of logistics to a smoothly functioning economy. At
the last minute, railroads and their engineers and dispatchers reached agreement on new labor contracts, averting a strike that could have shut down the
railroads at the tail end of the most important shipping period of the year.
As Senior Editor Mark Solomon reports, those agreements meant that
all 13 rail unions are under contract or close to final agreement, and the
threat of a shutdown averted.
What’s telling about that was not the agreements themselves, but the
widespread concern the impending strike caused in business and government. President Obama appointed an emergency
board to recommend ways to resolve the dispute. Rep.
John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, filed emergency legislation
to implement those recommendations. Major trade
groups like the National Industrial Transportation
League, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and
the National Retail Federation all called for imposing a
settlement. Both General Motors and Ford warned that
a strike would cripple auto production.
Should a strike have occurred, it might have meant a
mini-boom for long-haul truckers, but it’s doubtful
the trucking industry could have mustered anything
close to the capacity needed to offset the loss of rail
service. The consensus estimate seems to be that a
strike would have cost the U.S. economy $2 billion a day at a time when the
economic recovery is still precarious.
Any threat to major supply chains gets serious attention from business
and government. When rail workers strike or port managers lock out
workers, as happened during the peak season of 2002, it becomes abundantly clear to those who normally pay scant attention to logistics just how
critical it is. Stalled goods mean a stalled economy.
Unfortunately, all too often, interest fades soon after each dispute reaches resolution. Thus, while some in Congress pound their desks and rant
that a strike is unacceptable, we have seen little to indicate that Congress
can reach any sort of agreement on addressing a national transportation
infrastructure in sore need of maintenance and expansion. And failed
bridges, congested highways, broken locks in waterways, and an antiquated air traffic control system disrupt the economy less dramatically but just
as certainly as shutdowns caused by labor disputes. Perhaps Congress
should address its own fiddling while the nation’s roads crumble.
