During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Americans witnessed many strikes.  The cause of these strikes varied from economic grievances to long hours.  Sometimes the conflicts were more restrained, as managers tried to increase their control over the work process.  The public and the government took steps to reduce violent activity. During this time period, labor unions were frequently conducting riots and strikes to show their dissatisfaction with their working conditions.  Usually, the issue was the right of workers to have unions, and to engage in collective bargaining.  One of the most significant strikes is the Pullman Company strike of 1894.  This led other Americans to begin seeking pleasant relations between capital and labor while protecting the public interest.

The Pullman company's manufacturing plants were located in Pullman village which was a company-owned town on the outskirts of Chicago.  Pullman publicized his company-town as a model community, filled with contented, well-paid workers.  However, the Pullman workers disagreed especially after the onset of the economic depression that began in 1893.  During this depression, now called a recession, Pullman wanted to preserve profits by lowering labor costs.  When the firm slashed its work force from 5,500 to 3,300 and cut wages by an average of 25%, the Pullman workers struck (Warne, 1).  During the strike the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, was trying to organize rail workers across the country to join the union.  The Pullman workers joined the ARU, and now Eugene Debs was the leader of the Pullman strike.

Chicago newspapers expressed astonishment at the strike vote because George Pullman was considered a model employer and unemployment was high, making the strikers easy to replace with those desperate for any kind of job.  Debs himself, who had not yet talked with the Pullman workers, urged caution.  The ARU had won a precarious victory on the western roads the previous year, and hard times made the union vulnerable.  It was a new kind of union, with all the workers in the industry organized into a single group regardless of job description.  Debs had left a comfortable title as secretary of the craft-based Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and a political career as a Democrat in the Indiana legislature to found the ARU (Debs, 1).  When he talked to the Pullman workers, especially Jennie Curtis and William Carwardine, a Methodist minister in the community who supported the workers, he knew he had to risk everything (Brisben, 1).

The ARU exerted significant influence over the workers who operated trains.  In order to put pressure on Pullman, the union asked trainmen not to run trains that contain Pullman sleeping cars.  The ARU originally wanted the trains to run without the Pullman cars, however, the railroads insisted that those cars be included due to contract obligations with the Pullman Company.  Soon there after Chicago railroad workers refused to operate the passenger trains resulting in a stalemate.  At this point the conflict between the Pullman Company and the ARU was far from over, disrupting the entire American railroad service.

The boycott technique was considered effective.  Pullman was then forced to lease his cars.  He did this so that he would not loose business because of the strike.  At this time, Pullman preferred hiring workers that lived in Pullman village.  Pullman was still recognized as a good man because of the grade schools he built, and the teachers he hired.   He also built a library and donated selected books.

The government wanted desperately for the riots to stop.  They did not want another Haymarket Square riot.  A mail car was attached to the passenger trains of the Pullman Company, causing the postal delivery into Chicago to be interrupted.  This obstruction of mail delivery was a federal offense.  President Grover Cleveland stated in 1894 that the U.S. would do anything in its power to deliver the mail.

The Pullman Company, with the help of 24 major railroads, brought in lawyers. They convinced President Cleveland to send federal troops because it was interfering with mail trains, however this was not the case.  Edwin Walker, lawyer, got a court order prohibiting strike activity on railroads.  This was based on the premise that railroads are highways, and cannot interfere with interstate commerce.

Pullman called on the city of Chicago to send police to break the strike, but Mayor Stephen Hopkins refused.  He was a manager at a nearby grocery store that Pullman owned and he wanted to buy it.  Pullman thought otherwise and wanted to have total control of the village.  Hopkins led the successful movement to take control of the village and give it to the city of Chicago in 1889.  He also was providing relief food for the strikers from his warehouse.  Pullman called on the state of Illinois to send militiamen to break the strike, but Governor John Peter Altgeld also refused.  Altgeld had forgiven the three remaining labor advocates accused of conspiracy during the Haymarket Square riot in 1886.  A thorough investigation had convinced him that these people had nothing to do with the violence.  He saw that there would be no reason to send troops to aid an employer in a situation where no violence had taken place.

On July 6, there were 750 boxcars ransacked for food by a mob.  The Pullman strikers were not involved, but nevertheless, Eugene Debs, and the ARU were blamed for it.  All of the ARU officers were arrested the next day, and held on $10,000 bond.  A week later they were sent to jail for contempt, without a trial.  The strike had collapsed by early August, and Pullman re-opened.  One thousand active union workers were fired.  New workers had to sign a yellow dog contract saying they would not engage in union activities.  Yellow dog contracts made corporations force workers to sign away their rights to unionize as a prerequisite of employment.

The union could not hold up with the troops and the injunction.  The boycott fell, and soon after the ARU fell apart.  Many companies afterward were able to stomp out strikes as they started.  A federal court would issue an injunction on the grounds that the strike was "a conspiracy in restraint of trade," which violated the Sherman Anti-trust Act.  Union membership died rapidly.

Even though we know the Haymarket Affair had a huge impact on the government's decisions in regard to strikes, was there another more important reason?  Politics also had its effect.  The industries had the money, and were willing to help a political officer in exchange for support.

The unions took a nasty hit, but were a necessity.  If the companies did not take care of the labor force then the unions would.  It was this constant struggle that finally gave us the labor laws we have today. These laws protect the foundation of our economy, the labor force.

 Adelman, William. Touring Pullman. Illinois Labor History Society. 1993

 Brisben, Quinn (1994).  The Pullman Strike; Looking Back 100 Years Later.
http://www.ibiblio.org/spc/articles/5.94.html.

 Chicago (IL). Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural   Landmarks. A Summary of Information on the South Pullman District. 1972.

 Debs, Eugene (1923).   The Pullman Strike and The Black Pullman Worker.  http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/pullman/strike.html

 Warne, E. Coston (1955).  The Pullman Boycott of 1894: The Problem of Federal Intervention.  Http://1912.history.ohio-state.edu/eventsofPullmanstrike.htm.

 William H. Carwardine (1894, 1973).  The Pullman Strike. http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/uleadr.html