Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike started on May 11, 1894. It was a conflict that was going on all across the nation. It included the American Railroad Union (ARU) and other railroads that occurred in America at that time. Beginning in a town called Pullman Illinois, with over four thousand employees that worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The strike started because the employees were upset with their current changes in reducing their pay. George Pullman was the president of the Pullman Palace Car Company. He designed the passenger railroad car, which included comfortable seats as well as sleeping cars for people to travel. In 1894 there was a depression that led to the Pullman Palace Car Company cutting wages to almost forty percent, and lay off tons of workers. Employees started to walk out demanding lower rents and higher pay. As the workers got more and more angry as bad things kept happening in this depression
The American Railway Union was led by Eugene Debs, who was trying to organize rail workers all across the United States. The former Pullman workers needed people who cared, so they joined the union. So now Debs became the leader of the Pullman strike. The ARU had great influence among the workers who operated trains. The union trainmen refused to run trains on which Pullman sleeping cars were attached, which put a lot of pressure on Pullman. This caused many problems to the ARU. Not only did this cause problems to the ARU but also Mail trains got interrupted also. This caused the strike to become a national issue. It was time for the government to get involved. This is when things went really bad. The Pullman management couldn't change its position such as the employees not being able to operate any trains with Pullman cars. Due to this violence broke out. There was rioting, burning of railroad cars, and pillaging. This wasn't only being done by those who were part of the union. The mobs of the non-union workers joined in too. The...