This strike came about after George Pullman, a sleeping-car maker, built a town for his workers that included a school, bank, water and gas systems and very comfortable homes. At least he wanted his workers to be happy. But after the Panic of 1893, those living conditions began to slip.
Pullman laid off workers and had also cut their wages by 25%. This, along with other issues, caused most workers to protest against him in March of 1894. As a result of this protest, three of his workers were fired which, oddly enough, caused the workers to strike.
Instead of barganing with the workers he just shut down the plant. This caused many wide-spread local strikes that boycotted the cars all over the country.
By 1894, 120,000 workers of the railroad had joined in this Pullman Strike. The strike got completely out of hand by that point and it completely disrupted the western railroad traffic. This also included the mail service.
Railroad owners won in court that stated that all union activity that halted the railroad traffic was forbidden. On July 4, two days after the owners won, the president of that time, President Grover Cleveland had sent almost 2,500 troops to be sure that the strikers were obeying the law. The strike was over a week later. |
