The Pullman Strike

George Pullman built a planned company town on Chicago’s South Side for workers who manufactured his luxurious railroad sleeping cars. Pullman owned the houses and stores. When the depression of 1893 hit, he cut wages by about a quarter but kept rents and utility charges the same.

Pullman workers formed a grievance committee but got nowhere. Many had joined the new American Railway Union, formed in June 1893, which accepted railroad workers of every craft. Although ARU leaders advised against it, a strike broke out at the Pullman works on May 11, 1894. When the company refused to negotiate, the ARU voted to boycott Pullman cars: its members would not handle any train carrying them.

The boycott crippled rail traffic nationwide. The General Managers’ Association, representing 24 railroads, hired strikebreakers and worked to turn public opinion against the strikers. Because the boycott disrupted the U.S. mail, the federal government intervened: a court issued an injunction, citing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 — a law meant to fight monopolies. Over the objection of Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, President Grover Cleveland sent thousands of U.S. Marshals and Army troops. Mob violence increased in Chicago, and clashes between soldiers and crowds at rail yards left dozens dead.

The boycott collapsed in mid-July, and the ARU was defeated. Debs and other leaders were indicted for contempt for defying the injunction. In late July, President Cleveland appointed a commission to investigate, and George Pullman was widely criticized for refusing to arbitrate with his workers; destitution was widespread in his town.

The strike demonstrated how injunctions and federal power could be turned against organized labor. Pullman’s former company town became Pullman National Historical Park in 2015 — the first National Park Service unit in Chicago — which also includes a museum named for A. Philip Randolph that explores African American labor history.