Pullman Strike

The Pullman Strike was a nationwide U.S. railroad strike and boycott in 1894, sparked by wage cuts and defeated after federal troops intervened.

American Railway Union: A U.S. labor union founded by Eugene V. Debs in 1893 to organize railroad workers across trades. Its members extended the dispute by refusing to handle trains with Pullman cars.
Pullman Palace Car Company: An American manufacturer of railroad passenger cars founded by George Pullman in 1867. Its wage reductions in 1893 triggered the workers’ protest.
Labor injunction: A court order restricting conduct connected to a labor dispute, such as a strike or boycott. The injunction against the boycott became a central tool in federal intervention.
Pullman boycott: The 1894 refusal by American Railway Union members to handle trains carrying Pullman cars. The boycott turned a company-town strike into a nationwide rail stoppage.
Eugene V. Debs: An American labor leader who helped found the American Railway Union and later became a socialist politician. As union president, he led the boycott and was jailed after defying a federal injunction.
Panic of 1893: A severe economic depression in the United States beginning in 1893, marked by business failures and high unemployment. The downturn cut Pullman’s revenues and prompted wage reductions.
Interstate Commerce Act: A 1887 U.S. law regulating railroads and prohibiting discriminatory freight rates and practices. The government invoked interstate commerce and mail delivery to justify its intervention.
Debs v. United States: A 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case upholding Eugene V. Debs’s conviction under the Espionage Act for an antiwar speech. It shows Debs facing federal prosecution again, decades after his role in the strike.
George Pullman: An American industrialist who founded the Pullman Palace Car Company and its company town near Chicago. His company’s wage cuts and unchanged rents helped ignite the strike.
Company town: A settlement where one company owns much of the housing, services, and industry on which residents depend. Pullman’s control of both employment and housing made its workers especially vulnerable.

Linked from 16 pages