After Congress took action to avoid a rail strike, many thought those transportation issues would be over.
However, StoneX says that is not the case. The group continues to hear of many rail workers who are so upset with the current agreement, they may retire early. Ultimately, that would create major supply chain disruptions for the agriculture industry.
Frequent guest on the Market Day Report, Arlan Suderman, explains why that makes the ag industry nervous.
“Railroads have really brought things down to the most minimal number of people per train that can possibly operate. So when you have a labor agreement that they’re not happy with, its more of an older type of employee group right now since they’ve thinned it down and they’re very unhappy and many of them have indicated that hey I’m going to take my bonus that was in the agreement, once I get that, I’m going to retire and that’ll leave the railroads without being able to provide service,” Suderman says. “Now how bad will it be? I don’t know but its creating a lot of concern in the industry right now because there is simply no margin for error and we’re already seeing problems and such.”
Suderman says this has the potential to impact supply chain movement including bulk grain and other daily goods and services.
