U.S. railways to halt grain shipments ahead of potential shutdown

U.S. railways to halt grain shipments ahead of potential shutdown(reuters.com)

7 points by 0xChain 3 years ago | 4 comments

A lot of people are going to be very hungry, between the roughly 50% reduction in food produced this year vs last and the huge amounts that will spoil when it gets left in warehouses unable to get transported.

toomuchtodo 3 years ago | |

If the supply chain and consumers must suffer to improve railroad worker working conditions (improved quality of life around availability and attendance is the ask), that seems like a reasonable course of action when all other options have been exhausted.

I recommend some light reading regarding the working conditions railroad workers currently face. The solution is simple: railroads simply need to stop abusing their workers while raking in record profits. Freight rail can afford it, there is no excuse except to maximize profits.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122918098/railroads-freight-...

https://inthesetimes.com/article/railroad-job-conditions-nat...

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/15/rail-j15.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/14/us-railroad...

https://www.newsweek.com/why-railroad-workers-like-me-are-pl...

floxy 3 years ago | |

>the roughly 50% reduction in food produced this year vs last

That seems like a huge piece of news that I have missed. Do you have a source so that I can read more about it? There was the worry about Ukrainian wheat not making it to parts of Africa this year, but even that I thought was less of a concern with a deal struck between Russia and Ukraine for grain exporting.

codefreeordie 3 years ago | | |

I found that quote buried in some news article about grain from Ukraine and it stuck with me. Let me see if I can find it (or a reference to a similar figure) again.