Pullman Strike

The great Pullman Strike of 1894 occurred when three-thousand Pullman Palace Car Company[?] workers went on a "wildcat" (without Union approval) strike in Illinois starting on May 11 of that year. The men were protesting job, wage and working hour cuts initiated by George Pullman (who was responding to a fall-off of business in 1894) on the one hand while he did not lower rents, utility charges and the cost of products to his workers on the other. The strike (http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/index.html#PullmanStrike), which effectively shut down passenger rail after the unions of many railroads decided to not pull Pullman cars, was eventually broken-up by federal troops sent in by President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland claimed the strike interfered with delivery of U.S. mail. In the end, 13 strikers were killed and 57 wounded.