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Pullman Strike Timeline

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

August 1859

Pullman carPassengers relaxing on a Pullman sleeper car.
Three Lions—Stringer— Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Railroad car manufacturer George M. Pullman debuts the very popular Pullman sleeper cars. Their success leads to the founding of the Pullman Palace Car Company.

January 1, 1881

Pullman clock towerPullman clock tower building in Pullman, Illinois
Jack E. Boucher/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.(HABS ILL,16-CHIG,90--15)

The town of Pullman, Illinois, built to house the employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company, is inaugurated.

1893

An economic depression begins in the United States. The Pullman Palace Car Company cuts jobs and workers’ wages and increases working hours of those retained.

May 11, 1894

Pullman workers walk off the job in response to company president George M. Pullman refusing to meet with them to discuss their demands.

June 22, 1894

The American Railway Union (ARU) passes a motion to initiate a widespread boycott against the Pullman Company unless it agrees to submit the dispute with workers to arbitration by June 26. This demand is not met.

June 28, 1894

Pullman StrikeEmpty train station during the Pullman Strike (1894).
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

By this date some 40,000 railroad workers have walked off their jobs in solidarity with Pullman workers. This snarls traffic on all lines west of Chicago.

June 29, 1894

A total of 100,000 railroad workers have joined the strike by this date. ARU president Eugene V. Debs speaks at a peaceful gathering in Blue Island, Illinois, to garner support from other railroad workers. After he departs, however, the crowd turns violent, setting fires and derailing a locomotive attached to a U.S. mail train.

July 2, 1894

Attorney General Richard Olney obtains an injunction that prohibits ARU leaders from inciting workers to strike and from even communicating with them.

July 3–7, 1894

Pullman Strike: federal troopsFederal troops arrive in Blue Island, Illinois, during the strike.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-10546)

U.S. President Grover Cleveland sends federal troops to Illinois to stop the strike. Rioters destroy railcars in response. After a few days of unrest national guardsmen fire into a crowd of protesters, killing between 4 and 30 of them and injuring many others. Federal officers arrest Debs and other ARU leaders on July 7.

August 2, 1894

After the strike dwindles, the Pullman Company reopens, agreeing to rehire striking workers who agree never to join a union.

December 1894

Debs and his codefendants are sentenced to three–six months in prison.

Pullman Strike Key Facts

Pullman Strike | Key Facts

Pullman Strike Causes and Effects

Pullman Strike | Causes and Effects