Pullman StrikeArticle Free Pass Pullman Strike, (May 11, 1894–c.
July 20, 1894), in U.S. history, widespread railroad strike that
focused attention upon the application of U.S. antitrust laws to
activities by labour unions. The panic of 1893 had caused the
Pullman Palace Car Company to cut wages by about 25 percent. At
Pullman, its company town near Chicago, no corresponding
reduction was made in rents and other charges, which led to a
local strike initiated May 11, 1894, by members of the American
Railway Union. After the company president, George M. Pullman,
had refused arbitration of the dispute, the union’s national
council, led by its president, Eugene V. Debs, called for a
nationwide boycott of Pullman cars. Sympathy strikes by union
locals occurred in 27 states and territories from Ohio to
California, and violence of disputed origin and intensity broke
out, centring in Chicago. Governor John P. Altgeld of Illinois,
sympathetic toward the strikers, refused to call out the
militia. On July 2, in part acc