Parliament passes back-to-work CP Rail legislation

OTTAWA, Ontario -- Canada passed legislation forcing striking Canadian Pacific Railway workers back to their jobs, but the country's labor minister says it will take weeks to clear the backlog of freight once trains start rolling Friday morning.

Some 4,800 locomotive engineers, conductors, yardmen and others walked off nine days ago, crippling the country's biggest freight rail carrier along nearly 14,900 miles (24,000 kilometers) of track in Canada and the U.S.

CP Rail said Thursday the company's plan was to have cars rolling 12 hours after the bill passed. The union says it disagreed with the law, but was advising its members to obey it and report for work Friday morning.

Conservative Labor Minister Lisa Raitt says the strike would have cost Canada's economy half a billion dollars a week.