One For The Road: The Pullman Strike

By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on May 11, 2012 10:45PM

Elevated view of the Pullman works and water tower in 1908, seen from the top of the Hotel Florence, in the Pullman community area of Chicago. This image was taken as part of a Chicago Railways Company Trolley Trip. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.

On this date in 1894, nearly 4,000 employes of the Pullman Palace Car Company began their strike that become one of the most important labor fights in American history. When depression hit in 1893, Pullman sharply reduced workers' wages, while not reducing the cost of their employer-provided housing.

The Tribune writes:

Desperate, the Pullman workers appealed to the American Railway Union, which was holding its national convention in Chicago. The union voted to support the Pullman strike, instructing its members not to handle any trains containing Pullman cars.

By July, sympathy strikes were under way in 23 states. Episodes of violence led President Grover Cleveland to order federal troops to intervene, however, and the strike collapsed.