A strike against Union Pacific Railroad ended almost as quickly as it began.
A federal judge forced a temporary truce 41/2 hours after brakemen, conductors and yardmen struck Tuesday in a dispute over a rule that ended their chauffeured rides in rail yards.In Utah, a handful of union members carried picket signs outside Union Pacific's Salt Lake headquarters Tuesday afternoon, but employees were back to work Wednesday morning.
An attorney for the railroad estimated the strike cost Union Pacific millions of dollars. The Omaha-based railroad operates freight trains on 17,000 miles of track in 19 states in the western two-thirds of the nation.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Shanahan ordered the United Transportation Union not to strike and the railroad to drive the crews to their trains until a hearing on the issue Thursday in Omaha.
Union President G. Thomas DuBose said Tuesday night that members had been notified to return to work. No problems or pickets were reported Tuesday night, said John Bromley, a railroad spokesman.
"We plan to go into court Thursday and put on a defense that will clearly show that the railroad's planned change is an arbitrary one and should not be allowed," Du-Bose said from the union's headquarters in Cleveland.
About 7,100 of the 11,000 Union Pacific employees who work in train operations were affected by the strike, said Alex Tice, another Union Pacific spokesman.
An undetermined number of workers honored the work stoppage called at 2 p.m. CST Tuesday. Scattered pickets had been reported at Fort Worth, Texas; Little Rock, Ark., Poplar Bluff, Mo., Atchison, Kan.; Green River, Wyo.; North Platte, and in the Omaha area.