Answer:
The Pullman strike in 1894 was an important episode in US political history, where the power of the trade unions was postponed by a centrally controlled military intervention against strikers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, an Illinois-based railway wagons company.
Explanation:
The background of the strike was the economic crisis of 1893 in the United States, where the company, after heavily declining demand for their products, had reduced the workers' wages by 25%. Many of the workers were already organized in the militant American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs, and several joined the union because of the cuts.
The workers striked on May 11, 1894, and Debs then launched an action during which members of the ARU refused to work in Pullman wagons. This led to the closure of the factory and employers launched a lockout of ARU members. Eventually, it came to more extreme actions, and among other things, a bunch of furious demonstrators set fire to some buildings and derailed a locomotive.
Eventually, the strike attracted nationwide attention, and strikers were ordered to cease action and their leaders to stay out of action. Debs and his people ignored this injunction calling for government troops. A total of about 12,000 soldiers took part in the strike, and their pretext for the intervention came from President Grover Cleveland himself, arguing that the strikers with their actions prevented the delivery of mail - although the Pullman wagons had never transported mail.
The arrival of the government forces further escalated the conflict, and it came to bloody clashes that cost 13 striking lives, while 57 were injured. The approximately 6,000 strikers must have incurred damages of about $ 340,000 (equivalent to $ 6.8 million in 2019 value). Several strikers were arrested, including Debs.
The wildcat strike by employees of the Pullman Company in 1894 was not approved by a union.
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide railroad strike in the United States. It was happened from May 11 to July 20, 1894 as a turning point for US labor law.
The Pullman Strike pitted the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Company, the main railroads, and the federal government of the United States under President Grover Cleveland. Because of Pullman strike, there are the boycott which shut down much of the nation's freight and passenger traffic west of Detroit, Michigan. The conflict began in Pullman, Chicago, on May 11. Nearly 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages. 30 workers were murdered by railroad agents and their allies. A wildcat strike action itself is a strike action taken by unionized workers without union leadership's authorization (unofficial industrial action).
Because it was action without union leadership's authorization, support, or approval, wildcat strike by employees of the Pullman Company in 1894 was not approved by a union.
Grade: 9
Subject: history
Chapter: Pullman Strike
Keywords: Pullman Strike
