TRANSPORTATION

Rail Employees Ordered Back to Work: The White House ordered striking Soo Line Corp. railroad workers to return to their jobs, temporarily easing an unusual fratricidal battle between two rail labor unions that threatened to spread into a national strike. The impact of the seven-week walkout against Minneapolis-based Soo, which operates 5,033 miles of railroad radiating from Chicago to nine Midwestern states, had been limited to the upper Midwest. But the situation began unraveling Aug. 22 when the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers ordered its members to cross the picket lines of the striking United Transportation Union. Soo slowly began returning to normal operations without UTU-represented conductors. As a result, the UTU passed the word that it might stage a “secondary boycott” against railroads that connect with Soo, which is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway. That could have shut down Chicago, the nation’s rail hub.