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OMAHA, Neb. — The contract imposed on railroad workers last fall didn’t resolve their quality-of-life issues, but already this year there are indications the major freight railroads are starting to address some of their concerns.

Union Pacific says it will stop imposing temporary limits on certain businesses’ shipments while it reviews the policy that federal regulators and shippers criticized at a hearing in mid-December.

Federal regulators and shippers are questioning Union Pacific’s decision to temporarily limit some businesses’ shipments as part of its effort to clear up congestion across the railroad.

Railroad workers are continuing their demand for paid sick days. The Sheet Metal, Air, Rail Transportation Union, or SMART, held an informational picket near the rail yard on Rice’s Point on the afternoon of Dec. 13.

Transportation stakeholders are applauding the action by Congress to avert a nationwide freight rail strike, just weeks before Christmas.

Moving quickly to help avert a rail workers strike that would have cost the national economy an estimated $2 billion per day, the U.S. Senate on Dec. 1 advanced a tentative labor agreement between railroads and their employees.

To avert a railroad strike projected to cost the economy $2 billion daily, the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 30 passed a bill outlining a labor agreement between rail carriers and workers.

U.S. railroads have begun curtailing shipments of hazardous chemicals ahead of a potential nationwide strike by workers, according to a major trade group representing oil refiners and petrochemical companies.

With a Dec. 9 deadline looming to reach an agreement on a nationwide freight rail contract, President Joe Biden is asking Congress to intervene in the dispute, which threatens to severely damage the U.S. economy.

The possibility of a nationwide freight rail strike beginning as early as Dec. 9 moved one step closer when the union SMART-TD, one of the largest in contract talks with the six Class I freight carriers, turned down a tentative agreement negotiated in mid-September by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and other officials.