(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #239 - 1894: The Pullman strike the death knell of employer paternalism (fr, pt)

May 11, 1894 near 4000 workers Pullman Chicago factory stopped work. This is the beginning 
of a struggle of three months during which the solidarity of workers in the rail across 
the United States meets the collusion patterns of rail. It is also the baptism of fire for 
a new unionism, which breaks with corporatism, and finds himself face justice and the 
federal army. ---- The Pullman Company, which produces railway wagons, illustrates more 
than one way the evolution of American capitalism since the end of the Civil War. Pullman 
is a paternalistic company whose owner, George Pullman, built a city in his name to house 
his workers near their workplace, in the suburbs of Chicago. ---- Following an initial 
brief strike in 1886, the company began a major restructuring. It adopts new principles 
emblematic of the period: the creation of an internal labor market and "scientific 
management" of labor. The proportion of skilled workers is reduced in favor of skilled 
workers are less likely to unionize. Trades are divided into specialties to reduce the 
influence of corporations. The gang bosses[1] who ran groups of workers and their 
employment are replaced by supervisors; workers are employed individually and no longer 
benefit from the paternalistic protection gang . The daily wage, a fixed amount is 
replaced by the system of piece Free rate: workers receive a percentage of the value of 
the parts they produce in the day.

The paternalistic model to compete

This restructuring is intended to deal with the cutthroat competition that exists between 
the major capitalist sector groups railways. In the 1880s, three-quarters of the national 
production of steel are used in railways and rail network doubled between 1877 and 1893. 
To maintain their market share, companies drastically reduce their prices and wages of 
their workers. They begin to borrow and produce at a loss for some to bankruptcy, it is 
the beginning of the Great Depression that lasted from 1893 to 1898.

George Pullman began by reducing its workforce by 75%, but this strategy threatens both 
production factories and paternalism of the project. So in 1894, change in strategy: it 
begins to produce at a loss, but does not inform its employees who are therefore more 
trust him. With this overproduction he rehire 68% of its workforce, but at the cost of 
lower wages by 28%. The side of the workers, the situation is intolerable system of piece 
Free spleen causes variability in the monthly wages of workers, receipts percentages are 
constantly revised downwards and renegotiated for each new mission. The authority of 
supervisors, with a lot of favoritism, arbitrariness and abuse of power, is also heavily 
criticized. Not wanting to give up its return on investment, Pullman refused to lower rents.

Boycott, a new strategy

May 7, 1894, workers' representatives are received by management. They demand higher wages 
or lower rents, and the end of harassment by supervisors. George Pullman refused to 
negotiate. Three days later, three members were dismissed under false pretenses, and in 
the evening, the strike is voted by 4,000 workers. Workers' representatives were members 
of the American Railway Union (union American railroads), founded a year earlier by Eugene 
Debs, a union of the "Brotherhood of drivers." The ARU is primarily a response to the 
employer's policy as expressed in particular in the General Managers Association . Founded 
in 1886, the GMA defines trades and fixed wages. Arm of the business, it employs scabs and 
distributes financial losses due to strikes between member companies.

To counter the GMA, Debs trying for several years to bring together the trade guilds which 
then dominate the trade union landscape. Faced with repeated failures, he becomes aware of 
the need to overcome the corporatist approach and creates a unique union that brings 
together all rail workers regardless of their level of specialization or occupation. The 
ARU is fast becoming the dominant union in the railways: one year after its creation, the 
union collects 150,000 members, one third of employees Pullman.

At the first congress of the ARU in June 1894 Pullman strikers require the support of 
other union workers in the form of a boycott. Proposal is made that all workers, whether 
employed or not Pullman, refuse to work on trains include Pullman cars, that is to say 
almost all trains. Faced with the intransigence of the boss and the GMA, congress vote 
boycott which starts on June 26 Within days, the strikers and their supporters ARU 
paralyze traffic in twenty-seven states. The movement spread to Chicago, which was at the 
time the largest U.S. railroad hub, across the west to the coast. Mobilizing 250,000 
people make this boycott largest industrial strike in American history. Solidarity of 
workers, beyond the different professions, different companies and different geographical 
areas, remains unmatched. The movement has a broad support of the population and local 
authorities, mainly in Chicago. The mayor has assigned a municipal police to raise funds 
for the strikers, while the governor of Illinois refuses to involve the National Guard.

Judges and masters impose their law

But Pullman and GMA do not intend to stay there. Faced with a situation that eludes them, 
they play their supporters within the federal government in Washington, including the 
Attorney General Olney, himself from the world of rail. They began a wave of 
disinformation with the help of the mainstream media, exploiting the few incidents that 
dot the shore. While only a few violent episodes are recognized, Olney says the country is 
"on the brink of anarchy" . Following the destruction of equipment on June 29, he asks the 
federal court in Chicago to restore order in the city, and on July 2 an injunction is 
imposed to stop the boycott by force. Supreme irony is a 1890 law that was originally 
intended to limit the power of big capitalist trusts that will be used to justify the 
decision[2]!

Despite opposition from the governor, ten thousand federal troops were deployed in Chicago 
on July 4. Immediately, the conflict escalates and violence is increased tenfold. Federal 
troops to protect strikebreakers who return to work on the Pullman cars despite the 
boycott. Governor involves the Illinois National Guard to intervene between the strikers 
and federal troops. In a few hours, at least thirteen strikers were killed and fifty-three 
wounded, the damage totaled $ 80 million. On July 5, Debs offers the resumption of 
negotiations in Pullman, who refuses. The strikers are planning to call for a general 
strike across the city. The next day, Debs appealed to the Inter solidarity and turns to 
the American Federation of Labor (the largest trade union federation) before being 
arrested with other leaders of the movement. At a meeting on July 12 in Chicago attended 
Samuel Gompers, first leader of the AFL, the solidarity strike is denied. About 25,000 
city workers start still on strike, but the movement is doomed to failure.

Big stick and little carrot

Return to work slowly with the threat of soldiers and pressure from the media who managed 
to "turn" the public. The strike is virtually complete by mid-July, and August 5 ARU 
officially ends the boycott. In September, 2000 Last Pullman strikers return to work 
unconditionally, they are rehired after having renounced all union membership, with the 
exception of leaders. Debs was indicted for failing to comply with the federal injunction 
to stop the boycott. Defended by Clarence Darrow, lawyer for civil liberties, it is 
nevertheless sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Supreme Court. It was in his cell 
he starts playing the Capital of Marx and he turned to socialism, convinced that his union 
approach must be based on a coherent political ideology that allows to analyze and 
understand the system to better fight. It will appear as a candidate of the American 
Socialist Party in five consecutive elections and will help establish the union Industrial 
Workers of the World . It will be re-arrested and imprisoned for sedition in 1918 after a 
speech in which he criticizes U.S. involvement in the First World War.

Six days after the end of the Pullman strike, the President of the United States, Grover 
Cleveland, decided to establish definitively Labor Day (Labor Day, celebrated on the first 
Monday in September) as a federal holiday. It gets the public support of Samuel Gompers, 
the leader of the AFL who refused to support the strikers Pullman ... Cleveland seeks to 
ease social tensions created by the massive repression at the Pullman boycott and to 
improve the image of the federal state with the social movement. But choosing the first 
Monday in September, the authorities especially want to cut the grass under the feet of 
the emerging dynamics around May 1st date selected by the trade union movement, anarchists 
and communists, to commemorate the Haymarket massacre in Chicago in 1886 and the execution 
of four anarchists that followed.

David (AL Alsace)

BOYCOTT OR WORKERS SOLIDARITY AGAINST EMPLOYER

The Pullman strike of workers is a central episode in American social history for various 
reasons. Magnitude firstly: a quarter of a million strikers over a vast extent of 
territory, it is the largest industrial strike the country's history to date. It is also a 
peak in the violence of the federal government to the labor movement.

Method and strategy then employed: the boycott becomes an essential means of trade union 
action to deal with changes imposed by employers on the labor market at the turn of the 
twentieth century. The ARU is also distinguished by its inter-and intercat?gorielle strategy.

One of its limitations is nevertheless patent refusal to unionize 2,000 black employees by 
Pullman workers, some of whom then accept to be paid by employers to break the strike. 
Racism within the same union is one of the reasons for the failure of the boycott Pullman. 
Another reason is the growing importance of the press. If at the beginning of the 
movement, the press, particularly local, is rather favorable to the movement, a 
disinformation campaign quickly launched at the instigation of Pullman and relayed by the 
major national newspapers.

The New York Times wrote that Debs is "a criminal and an enemy of the human race", each 
violent incident is exploited to discredit the movement. The strikers, many of whom are 
recently arrived immigrants are described as foreigners who disagree with the federal 
government and the patriotism of the soldiers. In this conflict, as in others, the 
bourgeois press has played a key role to sway public opinion against the strikers. 
Finally, the Pullman strike marked the end of paternalism that characterizes capitalism of 
the late nineteenth century. This model is embodied in the figure of Pullman, both 
contractor, builder and father figure that governs every bit of the lives of its workers.

The Cleveland administration appointed a commission to investigate the causes of the 
Pullman strike. This tip paternalism George Pullman and including the administration of 
the city that bears his name and where he directs all supreme. In 1898, the Supreme Court 
of Illinois Pullman forces society to withdraw from the management of the city and the 
territory became a district of Chicago. With the end of slavery as an economic model, 
American capitalism is transformed into depth, as well as the unions that fight.

SUMMER 1894

On May 11, the strikers halt production after the arrest yesterday of three trade 
unionists who negotiated with George Pullman.

June 15, in the Congress of the ARU, Pullman terminates any communication with the union 
and refused his proposal to mandate five negotiators to resolve the conflict.

On June 21, the delegates of the ARU boycott the vote to 26 if the company does not 
accept negotiation.

June 22, Pullman refused to negotiate and endorse an agreement with the GMA to oppose 
the boycott.

On June 26, the boycott starts and spreads rapidly. In three days, more than 50,000 
workers went on strike.

July 3, federal troops deploy in Chicago, following the federal injunction obtained 
yesterday against the boycott.

From July 4 to 7, the strikers and federal troops clash.

July 7, Debs was arrested with six other leaders of the ARU.

On 12 July, the AFL refuses to engage in a strike support.

On August 2, Pullman factories reopen, the strike is over and the boycott abandoned. 
The ARU was disbanded.


[1] The industrial workers, often employed by the day, gather in a group led by a boss 
that governs the life of the group gang.

[2] The Court refers to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 gives the federal government 
the power to oppose any obstacle to free trade between states, including the formation of 
trusts set prices to thwart competition. During the Pullman strike, the boycott is 
considered a barrier to interstate commerce.