DES MOINES, Iowa — In an era of home delivery, it's easy to forget that nearly 30% of freight in the United States is carried by train.
With a possible rail strike looming this week, railroad companies and union leaders must reach a deal on a new contract by Friday or else those goods won't have anyone to keep them moving.
"Stuff you buy in the shelves, raw materials for stuff we use, chemicals, lots of dangerous chemicals, all that's shipped by rail," one local rail worker told Local 5 Wednesday.
The worker said that one of the biggest things employees are looking for is more time away from the job since it can be incredibly demanding on their schedules.
"I don't know when I'm going to work. I don't know when I'll be home from work. I'm typically gone 24 to 48 hours," the worker said. "And then I come home, and I might have 10 hours off, I might have 36 hours. I can't plan anything."
If negotiations fail and a strike begins, much of the cargo that used to be carried by train will have to be taken another way. One solution that's been suggested is using truckers.
But that industry is already dealing with a shortage — according to the American Trucking Association, they would need more than 460,000 additional trucks to make up the difference and somehow overcome an 80,000 driver shortage overnight.
"One train can handle three to 400 trucks, that's just one train. So if you can imagine, you know, hundreds of trains a day, that's, you know, thousands and thousand of tons of freight that wouldn't be able to get moved," the worker said.
If there's no agreement by Friday, the only thing that would prevent a strike would be an act of Congress.