Pullman Strike история на Съединените щати

Pullman Strike, (11 май 1894 - c. 20 юли 1894), в историята на САЩ, широко разпространен железопътен удар и бойкот, който силно наруши железопътния трафик в Средния запад на САЩ през юни – юли 1894 г. Отговорът на федералното правителство размириците белязаха първия път, когато се използва разпореждане за прекъсване на стачка. На фона на кризата на 28 юни Гроувър Кливланд и Конгресът създадоха национален празник, Ден на труда, като помирителен жест към американското работно движение.

Водещи въпроси

Какво беше стачката на Pullman?

Стачката Pullman (май – юли 1894 г.) беше широко разпространена железопътна стачка и бойкот, която прекъсна железопътния трафик в Средния запад на САЩ през юни – юли 1894 г. В отговор на съкращения, съкращения на заплати и уволнения работниците в Carll Company Pullman Palace в Чикаго продължиха стачка и в крайна сметка около 125 000–250 000 железопътни работници в 27 щата се присъединиха към тях, задушавайки националната железопътна мрежа западно от Чикаго. Твърдейки, че стачката е нарушила антитръстовия закон на Шерман, Едвин Уолкър, специален адвокат, действащ за генералния прокурор на САЩ Ричард Олни, получи разпореждане, което американският президент. Гроувър Кливланд използва за изпращане на федерални войски за справяне със стачката. След избухване на смъртоносно насилие стачката намаля и железопътният трафик се възобнови.

Джон Питър Алтълд

Прочетете за губернатора на prolabour lllinois Джон Питър Алтхелд, който се противопостави на използването на федералните войски по време на стачката Pullman.

Защо работниците на Pullman стачкуваха?

В отговор на намаляващите приходи по време на икономическата депресия, която започна през 1893 г., автомобилната компания Pullman Palace съкрати над 2000 работници и намали заплатите с 25 процента. Когато това също не намали наемите и други разходи в Pullman, компанията град в близост до Чикаго, където живееха повечето работници на Pullman, много работници и техните семейства бяха изправени от глад. Делегация от работници се опита да представи жалбите си на президента на компанията Джордж М. Пулман, но той отказа да се срещне с тях и им нареди да бъдат уволнени. Тогава делегацията гласува за стачка, а работниците от Pullman напускат работата на 11 май 1894 г.

Прочетете повече по-долу: Стачката и бойкотът

Джордж М. Пулман

Learn more about George Pullman, president of the Pullman Palace Car Company.

What were the effects of the Pullman Strike?

The massive disruption of rail traffic and the violent confrontations between strikers and demonstrators on one side and strikebreakers, law enforcement, and troops on the other during the Pullman Strike convinced many Americans that class conflict between capital and labour in the United States had reached a crisis stage that needed a solution in the public interest. In the short term, the fear of more violence limited union activity, and the courts acted to suppress strikes.

Organized labour: Origins of craft unionism

Read about the origins of the organized labour movement in the United States.

What was the significance of the Pullman Strike?

By involving as many as 250,000 railroad workers on some 20 railroads, the Pullman Strike demonstrated the power of the labour movement. However, in precipitating the use of an injunction to break the strike, it opened the door to greater court involvement in limiting the effectiveness of strikes. The event also established a greater role for federal government intervention in strikes and introduced the use of the federal military in addressing strikes. The violence that resulted from the strike also temporarily reduced public support for the labour movement.

Labor Day

Learn how the Pullman Strike contributed to the founding of Labor Day in the U.S.

What role did Eugene V. Debs play in the Pullman Strike?

Eugene V. Debs was the president of the American Railway Union (ARU), which represented about one-third of the Pullman workers and which had concluded a successful strike against the Great Northern Railway Company in April 1894. When the ARU voted to support the Pullman workers, the Pullman Strike became a national action, and Debs became its de facto leader. Although he cautioned against the violence that broke out, Debs received a six-month prison sentence for contempt of court (for violating the injunction issued against the strike) that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in In re Debs (1895). During his incarceration he embraced socialism.

Eugene V. Debs

Read more about Eugene V. Debs.

Clarence Darrow

Read about renowned attorney Clarence Darrow, who defended Eugene V. Debs before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The strike and boycott

In response to financial reverses related to the economic depression that began in 1893, the Pullman Palace Car Company, a manufacturer of railroad cars, cut the already low wages of its workers by about 25 percent but did not introduce corresponding reductions in rents and other charges at Pullman, its company town near Chicago, where most Pullman workers lived. As a result, many workers and their families faced starvation. When a delegation of workers tried to present their grievances about low wages, poor living conditions, and 16-hour workdays directly to the company’s president, George M. Pullman, he refused to meet with them and ordered them fired. The delegation then voted to strike, and Pullman workers walked off the job on May 11, 1894. As soon as the plant had emptied, company representatives posted signs at all the gates: “The works are closed until further notice.”

At the time of the strike, 35 percent of Pullman’s workforce was represented by the American Railway Union (ARU), which had led a successful strike against the Great Northern Railway Company in April 1894. Although the ARU was not technically involved in the Pullman workers’ decision to strike, union officials had been in Pullman and at the meeting at which the strike vote was taken, and Pullman workers undoubtedly believed that the ARU would back them. When the ARU gathered in Chicago in June for its first annual convention, the Pullman strike was an issue on the delegates’ minds.

A great deal of sympathy existed in Chicago and elsewhere for the Pullman workers, who were seen as common men and women tyrannized by an abusive employer and landlord. The question was how the ARU could support the workers, who, after all, did not exactly work on the railroads. One plan was to refuse to hitch Pullman cars to trains and to unhitch those that were already attached. Another idea was a boycott: ARU members would refuse to handle Pullman cars or any trains with Pullman cars until the railroads severed their ties with the Pullman Company.

On June 22 the ARU delegates passed a motion to initiate a boycott unless the Pullman Company agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration by June 26. During the next three days, several committees were sent to the company in the hope of winning concessions that would make the boycott unnecessary, but all were turned away.

Crucial to the success of any boycott would be the switchmen, who had joined the ARU in large numbers. The ARU’s president, Eugene V. Debs, predicted that, once the switchmen refused to add or remove Pullman cars from trains, the railroads would fire them and try to replace them with nonunion workers, and that in turn would lead other union members to walk out in solidarity, thus bringing more and more trains to a halt.

The scenario played out as Debs had predicted. On June 27, 5,000 workers left their jobs and 15 railroads were tied up. By the next day, 40,000 had walked off, and rail traffic was snarled on all lines west of Chicago. On the third day, the number of strikers had climbed to 100,000, and at least 20 lines were either tied up or completely stopped. By June 30, 125,000 workers on 29 railroads had quit work rather than handle Pullman cars. The ARU had few locals in the East or the Deep South, but the boycott seemed remarkably effective everywhere else.

Debs may have been pleased by the effectiveness of the boycott, but he was also alarmed by the anger expressed by the workers, which he feared could lead to violence. During the first week of the boycott he sent some 4,000 telegrams, hundreds every day, urging the ARU locals to stay calm and not to overreact.

On June 29 Debs spoke at a large and peaceful gathering in Blue Island, Illinois, to gather support from fellow railroad workers. After he left, however, groups within the crowd became enraged, set fire to nearby buildings, and derailed a locomotive. Unfortunately for the strikers, the locomotive was attached to a U.S. mail train. That greatly upset Pres. Grover Cleveland in that the strike had now prevented the federal government from exercising one of its most-important responsibilities.