Pullman+Strike

The Pullman Strike by: Phil DiMuzio and Emily Dixon

Terms: workers (type of) and perspective
 * Union**: Most of the Pullman workers joined the American Railroad Union. They mainly wanted to negotiate with George Pullman.
 * Scab:** A negative term used to describe workers brought in while other workers were striking.
 * Socialists**: Those who support public control of the economy.
 * Business Leader:** George Pullman led the Pullman Palace Car Company, and he started the changes to cut wages but keep the cost of living the same.

The Company: George Pullman was the owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company which manufactured passenger cars for trains. He was also the founder of Pullman, Illinois. The people who lived in the town were mainly workers at his factory. They had to rent their houses from the company, buy their food and supplies from the company’s store, and sell their labor to the company. The water for the town was bought by Pullman from Chicago for four cents per 1,000 gallons. He would then sell the water to the residents of the town for ten cents per 1,000 gallons. The rents charged for living in the town by the company were 20 to 25% higher than the rent in Chicago and other areas. Despite all this, Pullman was a very idyllic and harmonious town. This image came to an end because of the Panic of 1893.

The Workers & the Problems: The previous year, there was an economic depression in the United States. Railroad overbuilding and unstable financing created a series of bank failures caused the depression. It became known as the Panic of 1893. The company had to 2,000 employees. Also, the company had to slash the remaining worker’s wages by ¼ due to the panic. Yet, they did not cut the costs for rent, fuel, or other cost of living components for the people in the town. This led to great dissatisfaction and suffering in the usually idyllic town.

"Pullman, both the man and the town, is an ulcer on the body politic. He owns the houses, the schoolhouse, and the churches of God in the town he gave his once humble name. And, thus, the merry war — the dance of skeletons bathed in human tears — goes on; and it will go on, brothers, forever unless you, the American Railway Union, stop it; end it; crush it out." Jennie Curtis, President of ARU Local 269, the "Girls" Local Union. , Address to 1894 Convention of American Railway Union

This quote shows the feelings of the people who live in Pullman, Illinois. They were very unhappy with the fact that the company owns and controls the entire town. They believed that the American Railway Union was needed to do something about how the company ran the town. They knew that what Pullman was doing was not right and needed to be stopped. Strike! After the workers became more outraged with their wages in the Pullman Palace Car company, the workers tried to negotiate with Pullman in hopes of convincing him to either raise wages or lower costs of living. After this endeavor was deemed unsuccessful, the American Railway Union held its first meeting in Chicago. It was decided that a boycott was the best course of action for the workers' voices to be heard. Within less that a month's time, over 125,000 workers joined the boycott. Not only were Pullman's sleeper train cars being boycotted, but also all trains with these cars attached.

Despite this widespread strike on the Pullman Palace Car Co, the company stood firm and thought of innovative ways to keep the train cars running. In one clever scheme Pullman attached his cars to trains carrying United States mail. If these trains were interfered with, it was a federal offense. When the trains were sabotaged, the government got involved, and President Cleveland send troops to quell the boycott. Unfortunately the workers were met with violence, and they were fired upon by the feds. Around 30 workers were killed, and many more were injured.



Impact and Change: The boycott was called off because the practices in Pullman, Illinois violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. This act prohibits monopolistic practices, which they were in Pullman. A majority of the railroad workers returned to their former jobs and was paid the same amount as before the boycott. Also, workers were blacklisted, which meant that they could not be hired by any railroad in the United States.

The Pullman Strike was the first time that a federal injunction had to be used to break up a strike, which made it important. People’s opinion of George Pullman changed after the boycott. He was no longer the kind employer who looked out for his workers. He was now seen as a greedy and mean man. Due to the boycott, Pullman began to think of his workers as ungrateful people who only wanted to steal from him. Before he died in 1897, he said that he wanted concrete to line his grave to keep it from being robbed.

media type="youtube" key="u-mfW_v57LA" height="385" width="480"  Widespread Repercussions: As this video showed, the effects of the Pullman Strike were seen in a much more national range than just Chicago. The Pullman Strike was one of these first widespread boycotts in the United States. As the government constantly tried to quell these uprisings, new boycotts began to spring up among various companies. Federal agencies began to crack down on Unions so that they didn't have as many gains. Consequently, factory owners had "legal right" to push around their workers, who had little say, as Unions were deemed as "not-government-protected."

Despite all of the difficulty that they had to go through, Unions, especially the American Railway Union, remained strong, as their effectiveness was demonstrated in the Pullman Strike. This showed factory owners that with enough prodding, workers will unite to form a much greater force.



Resources: __Secondary Sources__: [|ABC-CLIO] [|Google Book - The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s] __[|Freebie Source- The Pullman Strike] [|Freebie Source] [] [|James E Henry, Sacramento History]

Primary Sources: __ [|Troops guarding railroad] [|Quote on Pullman]

__Pictography__: [] [] [|George Pullman]