I am sure the news of the great Pullman Strike has reached all four corners of this great nation by this time. About 3,100 employees went on strike in demand for higher wages. A strike unlike any strike that has been seen in past years! Is the time for change coming as the railroads come to a halt? Clippings of newspaper articles and photos of angry workers in Pullman City have been dropped on my desk since this great historical event that happened only a few short weeks ago. Apparently this is a strike unlike any strike we have seen in our great nation thus far. Workers have refused to attach Pullman Sleeper cars to trains, creating what could only be described as a standstill. Mr. Debs took up the cause of these employees, he has ordered “switchmen not to switch them; brakemen not to couple them; engine man not to draw them” (1). This will go down in history as “one of the most notable labor disturbances that ever occurred in this country” (2).
On May 11, 1894 the Pullman workers went on strike without authorization of their union, the American Railway Union under Eugene V. Debs. This has prompted outrage from the papers and periodicals! According to the Independent, printed out of New York City, this may not be considered a strike but a Rebellion! This is a “rebellion against society” and a “serious outbreak against the law” (3). They go so far as to inquire this strike by the Pullman workers of south Chicago is equal to TREASON. The Independent states that it would have no problem with the Pullman workers peaceably striking. They “had a right to leave their work when no pleased and to persuade everyone else they could not to take their place” but the worry comes when the workers expressed the intent to become violent, to take over roads and towns, and to enter into a war against the organizations to whom they served (4).
Pullman was created as a worker’s utopia. All of the Pullman workers were expected to live in a three-thousand-acre tract of land south of Chicago. This city was created FOR the workers with a “courageous scheme which was developed in its building: the beauty of architecture displayed: the symmetry of purpose and design” evolved in the construction of its vast shops and the paving of the roads of its numerous acres (5). This was a significant development in the area of labor when Pullman first unveiled his worker’s paradise. Gone, supposedly, were the grim, dark, dirty labor quarters of the past decade. Now it seems, even this “fine, ideality of a self-supporting community” was a façade. The Pullman situation highlights the fact that the labor issues will not go away with a coat of whitewash.
The public is now finding out that the labor conditions in Pullman City, how any wage negotiations were shut down without a thought. That the “grievances were many” against the Pullman Company. The papers cite the cause as the loss of wages and the refusal of the company to negotiate. In November of 1893 Pullman was paying skilled mechanics 25 cents an hour. But this scale was dependant on the pieces of work each employee turned over, so it ranged from 2.50 to 3.25 a day. Then, after November it was stated that no worker would make over 22 cents a day (6). Also, in the city of Pullman the rents were not decreased with the wages. The rent remained high while the workers were docked pay!! So easy was it for the company to decrease wages for it’s employees – this makes a substantial impact and affects every wage laborer in America. What is also significant is that there was no significant labor dispute with the first cut in wages at Pullman. It was the second reduction in wages that prompted outrage. All of a sudden no worker at Pullman Company could make over 1.50 a day.
What to do about these strikers? Opinions are all over the board as to how this situation escalated so quickly. Some people argue that they intended to remain peaceful; others believe that violence was on their minds. Do we as a people want to try and deal with this mob? Is there only one solution to a mob mentality – suppression? We “see resolutions passed by those unions which have denounced the militia and regular Army for attempting to put down not a strike but public violence” (7). It seems unanimous that the riots must be quelled. But what to do after we have taken that course of action?
Like mentioned before, the United States has seen strikes in the past decades. But this strike seems to have a deeper meaning and a harder resolution than strikes we have seen in the past. Workers watching Chicago and railway stations across the nation at a standstill over the injustices at Pullman can take something from this, be it inspiration or something else. This situation will continue to unfold over the rest of 1894, and will undoubtedly impact labor disputes of the future.
(1) “A Memorable Strike. Beginning in the Town of Pullman, It Led to the Raining of Great,” The Sun, October 20, 1894, Maryland edition.
(2) “Memorable Strike.”
(3) “Railway Men and Strikes,” The Independent, Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts 46 no. 2379 (1894): 20.
(4) “Railway Men and Strikes.”
(5) “The Story of Pullman. Inside Facts of the Strike Brought to Light,” The State, July 24, 1894, South Carolina edition.
(6) “The Story of Pullman.”
(7) “Railway Men and Strikes.”
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