AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION (ARU)

Founded in June 1893 by labor organizer Eugene Debs (1855–1926), the American Railway Union (ARU) was an industrial union for all railroad workers. The union grew quickly and met with early success before its demise a few years later. Within a year of its founding, the ARU established 125 locals, and membership increased daily. In April 1894, ARU workers at the Great Northern Railroad voted to strike in response to wage cutting. The strike shut down the railroad for 18 days before the company agreed to restore wages. The union triumphed.

Later that same year workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, which manufactured railcars in Pullman, Illinois (near Chicago), went on strike, protesting a significant reduction in their wages. In 1894, Pullman was a model "company town" where the company founder George W. Pullman (1831–1897) owned all the land and buildings and ran the school, bank, and utilities. In 1893, in order to maintain profits following declining revenues, the Pullman company cut workers' wages by 25 to 40 percent, but did not adjust rent and prices in the town, forcing many employees and their families into deprivation. In May 1894 a labor committee approached the Pullman company management to resolve the situation. The company, which had always refused to negotiate with employees, responded by firing committee members. The firings incited a strike of all 3,300 Pullman workers.

Pullman leaders were able to break the strike by attaching their cars to U.S. Mail trains. Since it was illegal to interfere with the delivery of the mail, Pullman workers now broke federal law when they obeyed their leader Eugene Debs and refused to return to work. President Grover Cleveland (1893–1897) ordered federal troops to insure the passage of the mail trains. Government intervention led to violent confrontations, and the strike was broken.

The American Railway Union was destroyed by the Pullman strike failure. Despite public protest, Eugene Debs was tried for contempt of court and conspiracy and was imprisoned for six months in 1895.

See also: Eugene Debs, Pullman Palace Car Company, Pullman Strike