Pullman Strike Research Paper

The Pullman Strike was a disturbing event in Illinois history. It occurred because of the way George Mortimer Pullman, founder and president of the Pullman Palace Car Company, treated his workers. Organized in 1867, the company manufactured sleeping cars and operated them under contract to the railroads

The Great Strike of 1877 coming after the heels of the Civil war and in the midst of a time of economic upheaval in American society, this is not argued, this is the fact of the time. We now have many primary source documents that we can use to ask questions and make judgements about this period in American history. Perhaps most importantly is the everlasting ability of using the media specifically newspapers during this time period, to sway public opinion. The question a historian finds himself asking is, if and how are the newspapers used to form and give the general public not the strikers or the business owners, a bad opinion of the strikes and a good opinion of the railroad strikers.

Through the wasteful competition of the railroads, workers began to lose support of their family and make a living. On page 9, in the text it states, “When wages are cut, thousands of Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on strike in Illinois. In sympathy, other railroad workers stop Pullman cars from moving.”(Timeline) This statement expresses the idea that George Pullman treated his workers with disrespect. When the great depression occurred, George cut all workers pay by 25% to make more profit for his company. This shows that he exploited the workers to make profit. Also, During the railroad competition, George developed the General Manager Association. This association made him able to fire whoever he wanted,

Despite being able to cause a small improvement in workers’ pay and hours, labor unions ultimately died out by the 1900s due to their methods. Unable to truly focus on the plight of skilled workers, most labor unions instead focused on that of unskilled workers, pushing aside the skilled workers. (Doc D). The actions of labor unions ended up being counterproductive, forcing companies to wage war against the labor unions. These stricter contracts such as that of Western Union Telegraph Company, forced workers to affiliate themselves against labor unions. (Doc E) One important thing to note is that the workers’ rights advocates were never able to coincide on one factor. As evidenced in an illustration in 1887, labor unions had to compete with other movements such as socialism, anarchism, and other labor unions. (Doc F). Because of this, the media, although recognizing the labor union movement, began viewing the labor unions as dangerous entities. Although the initial strikes such as the Wabash strike were successful, the ones that followed proved detrimental to the movement, and caused the steady decline of the labor unions. Because some of the strikes were dangerous, many strikes resulted in the deaths of those involved, such as the Homestead Crisis, and Pinkerton (Doc G). Combined with events such as the Wildcat strike, Haymarket strike, the Pullman Strike, the public began to associate a negative

Further evidence of the government’s support for the employers was illustrated by Cleveland’s use of Pinkerton agents to suppress the Pullman strike. The Pullman strike illustrates the often hostile approach of governments in the early part of the period, as the Federal government occasionally was active in their support for the employers, to the detriment of the workers, whose strike for higher wages failed as a result of the government.

In 1894 Debs was confronted with his most daunting situation to date. He presided over the infamous Pullman strike in Chicago in 1895. This proved to be the most important event in Debs' life regarding the formation of his ideologies. This was the first strike in America which was not authorized by the laborers local unions. The employees being both members of their local unions and Debs' ARU showed their allegiance to the ARU and struck with Debs' approval. The workers refused to operate any trains with Pullman cars on them except

The Great Railroad strike of 1877 led to many problems this strike, also referred to as the Great Upheaval, which began in July in a town named Martinsburg, West Virginia, the railroad strike ended forty-five days after locals, state militias and federal troops shut it down. The goals of the railroad strike were for a wage increase. The workers of the railroad were not represented by labor unions, which mad the workers angry therefore several cities started to build armories to support their militias to avoid any problems. There were many causes of the strike, one was that the civil war ended and a boom in railroad construction ensued about 55,000 of new tracks being laid between the years 1866 and 1873. In 1873, the Wake of the panic developed between workers and leaders. As immigration from Europe was underway, the railroad jobs were increasing and it became a competition, which enables companies to drive down the wages and lay off their workers. Speculators fed large amounts of money into the railroad industry causing an abnormal growth (en.wikipedia.org).

Craft unions had been representing small groups of skilled workers since before the Civil War, but most unions never hoped to have a compelling authority over the economy. Also, during the unstable times of the years of recession in the 1870’s unions encountered superfluous public opposition. “The “Molly Maguires” in the anthracite coal region of Western Pennsylvania” were the most predominantly frightening to middle class Americans. (Brinkley 412) The Molly Maguires were a radical employment establishment that occasionally benefited from using brutality and seldom used murder as a tactic in their disputes with coal operators. Enthusiasm toward the group diminished alongside the panic that engrossed the United States for the duration of the railroad strike of 1877, which commenced when the eastern railroads declared a ten percent income cutback and escalated into something close to a class feud. Strikers argued rail service from Baltimore to St. Louis, demolished equipment, and rampaged in the streets of Pittsburgh and other metropolises. State armed forces were requested, and in July President Hayes demanded federal troops to overpower the complaints. Eleven campaigners died and forty were injured in a divergence involving workers and militiamen in Baltimore. In Philadelphia, twenty people were also killed when troops had to open fire upon “thousands of workers and their families who were attempting to block the railroad crossings” (Brinkley 412). Over one hundred people died in total before the strike came to an end numerous sorrowful weeks after it began. Conclusively America’s first major labor conflict was the great railroad

But with the automobile ownership the railroad had a big decline decline. In 1957, Pullman Incorporated closed its plant in the neighborhood. Three years later chicago put pullman on the list of residents responded by forming the Pullman Civic worked to gain. lighted detouring area that required clearance and redevelopment .

June 1925, Pullman porters came to Randolph and asked him to lead their new organization, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This was considered the first serious effort of unionizing the Pullman Company. Randolph readily accepted their invitation. For twelve years he struggled, with his upbringing in mind he remained strong and never gave up. The Pullman Company was notoriously resisted efforts to unionize. Randolph’s determination caught the attention of the American Federation of Labor Leadership (AFL). His organization had this effect on many people. 1935, the Pullman Company had to sit down with the BSCP, it was at this very moment when Randolph made his first major stride in the Civil Rights Movement. Two Years of negotiations went by and finally

The International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first African American Labor Union chartered by the American Federation of Labor. Pullman porters were men who George Pullman hired to work on railroads as porters on sleeping cars. After the American Civil War, Mr. Pullman found former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Mr. Pullman was inspired to design better railcars for passengers that had sleeper berths for the passengers after he slept all night in his seat on a train trip from Buffalo to Westfield, NY. The Pullman Company was one of the largest employers of African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s. During a time when racial

The strike lasted all of 45 days, and became to lose steam and effectively come to a halt after President Hayes sent federal troops from city to city. There is no exact record of the losses faced by the country during this strike, but it is reported that the engineers' and firemen's brotherhoods lost approximately $600,000 over the forty-five days of the strike, while for the Burlington Railroad the losses were at least $2,100,000. In Pittsburgh, it was estimated that property damage reached over three million dollars, with Chicago, Baltimore and other cities facing losses of a similar magnitude. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike)

George Pullman was the developer of the Pullman Palace Car, creating his own factory town of Pullman, Chicago. With the massive success of the railroads, Pullman made a fortune producing his luxury sleeping cars. He is well known for suppressing his striking workers in Pullman. When a depression struck the country, he slashed wages the wages of his workers while keeping the wages of his associates and the price of living the same. This created uproar and led to a strike amongst his workers, eventually backed by Eugene Debs’ American Railway Union. The strike was violently put down, showing that labor unions had little power to negotiate.

There were even a few states that passed legislation recognizing it. However, Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later when a moment in American labor history brought the worker’s rights into public view. On May 11, 1892, Pullman Palace Car Company’s employees in Chicago went on strike to protest the wage cuts and the firing of the union representatives. On June 26, led by Eugene V. Debs, the American Railroad Union called for a boycott of the Pullman railway cars (Labor Day, 2010). This was going to hurt the railroad traffic nationwide. The federal government dispatched troops to Chicago to break the strike. This caused deaths in more than 12 workers. After several days of unrest and trying to repair ties with the American workers, Congress passed an act that made Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the surrounding

Economic depression took a big toll on America, causing events like the Panic of 1893 which created the collapse of railroad overbuilding, which further led to the collapse of many banks. This depression affected George Pullman’s company, causing him to take actions, making more of an impact than he ever thought. George Pullman was an American engineer and industrialist who founded his company. He created a community and environment that his workers lived and worked in. His company played a big role in the labor movement because they were a prime source for transportation. Overtime, companies grew and continued to grow by opening mines, overflowing the market with minerals such as silver. Faster construction meant building more railroads so more goods could be shipped. Building more railroads meant having more transportation and soon enough, the production rate was significantly lower than the sell rate since companies had more deliveries from the railroads. When economic depression hit, Pullman had to make some changes that would benefit the company but not the people of the community. Economic depression sparked conflicts that resulted in the Pullman Strike. George Pullman failed to create a compromise that would solve the worker’s unfair wages, poor working conditions, and the lack of voice they had, and this resulted in a halt on the labor movement.