Pullman Strike
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 Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago during the Pullman Strike |
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between the new American Railway Union (ARU) and railroads that occurred in the United States in summer 1894. It shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Illinois, on May 11 when nearly 4,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages. Most factory workers who built Pullman cars lived in the planned worker community of Pullman, which Pullman had designed as a model community, but which he controlled. When the company laid off workers, it did not reduce rents, and the workers called for a strike; they had not formed a union. The ARU was an organization of unskilled railroad workers founded in 1893 by Eugene V. Debs. Debs brought in ARU organizers and signed up many of the disgruntled workers. When Pullman refused arbitration the ARU called a strike against his factory, but it showed no sign of success. To win the strike, Debs decided to stop the movement of Pullman cars on railroads. The over-the-rail Pullman employees (such as conductors and porters) did not go on strike. Debs and the ARU then called a massive boycott (usually called a "strike") that affected most lines west of Detroit and involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states at its peak. The Railroad brotherhoods and the AFL opposed the boycott, and the General Managers Association of the railroads coordinated the opposition. Riots and sabotage caused $80 million in damages; 30 people were killed. The federal government secured a federal court injunction against the union, Debs, and the top leaders ordering them to stop interfering with trains that carried mail cars. They refused and the Army moved in to stop the strikers from obstructing the trains. Violence broke out in many cities, and the strike collapsed. Debs went to prison for violating a court order and his ARU disappeared.
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| Pullman Strike Timeline Pullman Strike Timeline recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/PullmanStrike.htm - Web |
| Chicago Strike Chicago Strike www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/pullman_strike.html - Web |
| Pullman strike town Pullman strike town www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/pullman.htm - Web |
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| The Pullman Strike, Illinois During the Gilded Age... The Pullman Strike, Illinois During the Gilded Age 1866–1894, Illinois Historical Digitization Projects at Northern Illinois University Libraries dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/pullman/index.html - Web |
