Union Pacific’s Alleged Anti-Union Bias Spat to Stay in Court

Union Pacific Railroad Co.‘s suspension of all elected leaders of a division of the railroad workers’ union following an off-duty fistfight likely violated federal law, allowing the courts to step in, the Fifth Circuit ruled.

The district court had jurisdiction under the Railway Labor Act to intervene in the dispute between Union Pacific and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Wednesday.

The RLA, which governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries, largely requires employee discipline cases to go through arbitration, according to the three-judge panel. But the ...