The railroad industry has long been subject to government oversight as a condition of some of its unique characteristics (the monopolistic business environment they enjoy with regard to many of their customers, for example). One of the unusual aspects of this government oversight is that the Federal government can prevent railroad workers from going on strike and force them into arbitration in the event of a labor dispute.
It's hard to argue that this is unfair, when you consider that the railroad industry would be non-existent today without massive government intervention and support in the latter decades of the 19th Century.