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Major United States railroads and union workers reached a tentative deal after 20 hours of negotiations to avoid a strike that could've led to nationwide disruption, President Joe Biden announced Thursday (September 15) morning.
"For the American people, the hard work done to reach this tentative agreement means that our economy can avert the significant damage any shutdown would have brought," President Biden said in a statement via NBC News.
President Biden's statement didn't expand on details of the new deal and neither labor unions or railway companies have provided comments as of Thursday morning.
The decision comes amid a labor dispute that could have resulted in the first national railroad strike in 30 years, which was expected to begin as early as Friday (September 16).
About 60,000 union members who work for Amtrak, many of which are engineers and conductors comprising two-person crews on trains, planned to go on strike prior to the new deal being reached.
An additional 45,000 union members belong to unions that had already reached tentative deals with railroads prior to President Biden's announcement on Thursday, however, a strike including engineers and conductors would have halted the freight rail system, which accounts for nearly 30% of freight in the United States.
The deal came days after Amtrak had suspended some of its long range routes ahead of a possible freight rail strike.
The routes suspended included Chicago to Los Angeles, Chicago to Seattle and Chicago to San Francisco, as well as a portion of a route that runs from Los Angeles to San Antonio, according to CNN.
The company referred to the suspensions as "initial adjustments" which "could be followed by impacts to all Long Distance and most State-Supported routes.”