The real roads carry chemicals that are used to purify water that comes through your

taps.

They carry ethanol, which is gasoline that you buy at the pump.

They carry one quarter of all US grain, essentially making sure that Americans have food on their

tables.

Our colleague Esther Fung covers railroads.

There are locomotive engineers, conductors, signal men, machinists, electrical workers,

firemen and oilists, boiler makers, blacksmiths, dispatches.

So much goes into running a railroad.

Since July, there's been a looming threat that America's railroads could grind to a halt.

About 60,000 workers are set to walk off the job if unions and management failed to come

to an agreement.

Trying to head off would could be a devastating rail strike heading into the holiday season.

Consequences would be catastrophic.

For three years, 12 unions and more than 30 railroads have been negotiating a new contract.

The talks came to a head this year when unions voted to strike.

A rail strike down would be intolerable for the economy, having more disruptions to supply

chains would be unacceptable.

And last week, the Biden administration stepped in and forced a deal that major unions didn't

want.

Is this a loss for the labor movement?

On one hand, they did get higher wage increases and that was definitely more than what the

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