Word: railed
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...India's food, fuel and freight are transported in 420,580 railway cars over the system's 39,000 miles of tracks. Indian Railways is the fourth largest in the world* and India's largest single employer, with 1.4 million workers. Last week the rail system was hit by a strike that could strangle the country. Despite the jailing of 1,500 union leaders and tough government warnings that the strike was illegal, nearly half the railway workers walked off their jobs...
Staggering Shortages. The strike could end up costing even more. Rail strikes in India have an impact similar to auto strikes in the U.S. Ever-widening circles of related industries are damaged, including companies dependent upon steel, fuel and all the sundry raw materials transported by trains. Most experts feel the economy cannot tolerate a strike for more than ten days. Then there would be staggering shortages of everything from food to fertilizer in a nation of 600 million people, 50% of whom suffer chronic food deficiencies...
Though the government claimed that no more than 8% of the work force responded to Fernandes' call, militiamen had to be mobilized to man emergency rail services. In Bombay, at least, the strike appeared far more effective than the government claimed. The 1,278 suburban trains that normally carry almost 3 million passengers daily were idle, keeping almost 50% of the city's workers away from their jobs. In many areas, even where minimal train service has been maintained, food prices have jumped 40% to 50% as housewives hoarded such staples as rice and cooking oil in fear...
Meantime, ridership on mass transit is dropping. After weeks of increased patronage, revenues have begun to dip on Boston's rail and bus systems. In San Francisco, a 5% decline in transit customers has been matched by an increase in auto traffic on the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. The same pattern holds for the Metro in Washington, B.C., where the number of bus riders is steadily dwindling from a peak of 2.6 million passengers a week at the height of the energy shortage in March. Another gas-saving alternative-car pooling-has caught on only in Washington...
...also described another incident that showed how Mitchell could throw his political weight around in Washington long after quitting as Attorney General in February 1972 and as head of President Nixon's re-election committee in July 1972. On March 20, 1973, said Dean, Mitchell phoned him to rail against the treatment that he had received at the hands of the New York federal grand jury poking into the circumstances of Vesco's campaign contributions. Declared Dean: "He said that he had had a hell of a grilling, and he said that 'those little bastards were...