Two of the largest railroad unions currently in negotiations with railroad carriers have stated beyond any shadow of a doubt that they will strike if more quality-of-life provisions (covering attendance policies, vacation and sick days) are not put into place.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the SMART Transportation Division represent half of railroad union workers. So far, eight out of twelve unions have reached tentative agreements with carriers, however have yet to fully negotiate quality-of-life provisions. The unions also have “Me Too” agreements with their fellow unions, meaning whatever benefits the BLET and the SMART unions agree to in their contracts, other unions’ members will also receive.

As of this article going live, if an agreement isn’t reached by Friday, the strike will go ahead with an estimated two-billion dollars per day impact on the U.S economy. Further, the reduced workforce would have a knock-on effect on shippers, with 40% of all long distance trade in North America undertaken by rail. Emergency measures have already been taken by railroads—for example, offloading hazardous cargo in the event of a shutdown.

The shipping container industry is currently enjoying its most profitable era on record. In fact, in just three years, the industry will have made as much money as it did in the entire previous six decades combined.

However, Richard Milne from The FT predicts that the industry might be in for a hard landing; port congestion worldwide is still high which has forced up prices and helped profits. However freight rates have fallen by about a third recently, and analysts are predicting that profitability will decline next year.

To compound issues, fears of both sky-high inflation and possible recessions in many western countries are high.

“I certainly hope we will not see a pandemic of this nature again, certainly in my lifetime. It’s been a dramatic period. We are looking forward to a more normalized world. We believe we have used this period to build a much better business,” said Søren Skou, Maersk’s chief executive.

Working against the industry are economic headwinds felt around the world, as well as cooling demand for consumer products coupled with carriers affected by capacity increases. The good news is that carriers have become more adept at forming alliances to help reduce this capacity and ease demand, investing in new businesses in order to keep freight going. Maersk, for example, recently invested $3.6 billion dollars into acquiring Li & Fung Logistics.