The Pullman Strike
Pullman workers exit the factory gates after a day's work. Most employees walked
the short distance to their nearby Pullman-owned homes and apartments.
The Pullman Strike was a disturbing event in Illinois history. It occurred because of the way
George Mortimer Pullman, founder and president of the Pullman Palace Car Company, treated
his workers. Organized in 1867, the company manufactured sleeping cars and operated them
under contract to the railroads.
Pullman created Pullman City to house his employees. It was on a three-thousand-acre tract
located south of Chicago in the area of 114th Street and Cottage Grove. His workers were
required to live in Pullman City. They were also expected to accept cuts in pay and not criticize
workloads. Pullman charged money for use of the library. Clergy had to pay rent to use the
church. "He wasn't a man to let you pray for free," it was claimed in The Call, a socialist
newspaper.
In 1893, because of a depression, factory wages at the company fell about twenty-five percent,
but the rents George Pullman charged did not decrease. If a Pullman worker went into debt, it
was taken from his paycheck.
On May 11, 1894, three thousand Pullman workers went on a "wildcat" strike, that is, without
authorization of their union. Many of the strikers belonged to the American Railroad Union
(ARU) founded by Eugene V. Debs. Debs, who was from Indiana, had moved to Chicago where
he became a railroad fireman. He became aware of the working conditions of his fellow laborers.
He saw men working for low wages, some of whom were injured or killed because of unsafe
equipment. He was determined to make things better.
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On June 26, 1894, some ARU members refused to allow any train with a Pullman car to move,
except those with mail cars. Debs did not want federal troops to get involved, and he knew that if
the U.S. mail was tampered with, the troops would be there immediately.
The railroads had formed an organization called the General Managers Association. They
announced that no one could tell them whom to hire, whom to fire, or how they should pay their
workers. The twenty-four railroads that were part of the General Managers Association
immediately tried to end the strike. They announced that any switchman who refused to move
rail cars would be fired.
Debs's union announced that if a switchman was fired because he refused to move Pullman cars
all the union members would walk off the job. By June 29, fifty thousand men had quit their
jobs. Crowds of people who supported the strike began stopping trains. Soon there was no
movement on the rails west of Chicago. In some places, fights broke out.
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