Chicago Pullman Strike

In the late nineteenth century, Chicago underwent a dramatic transformation that shaped the fundamental foundation of the windy city into a cultural environment devoted to work and moneymaking. This change inevitably gave way to both the type of industries that dominated and the organization of work itself. The metamorphose of large-scale corporate manufacturing and trade provoked battles over the character and control of work that spilled into broader political fights for the rights of workers.
From the Civil War until the 1920s Chicago was the country’s largest meatpacking center and the acknowledged headquarters of the industry, leading all other cities in meat processing and packing. “It was able to do so because most Midwestern farmers …show more content…
“Until the 1930s, it was not unusual for Chicago factory or other manual workers to put in 10 hours or more a day, 6 days a week, with 12-hour days common in many industries, including steel.” (Work in Chicago) In addition to long working hours most factory or manual workers were forces to receive declining wages. One of the most famous and far-reaching labor conflict was the Pullman Strike. In which, Pullman Palace Car Company factory worker’s walkout following failed negotiations for declining wages. “The boycott, although centered in Chicago, crippled railroad traffic nationwide, until the federal government intervened in early July, first with a comprehensive injunction essentially forbidding all boycott activity and then by dispatching regular soldiers to Chicago and elsewhere.” (Pullman Strike) Despite losing the battle the Pullman workers gained wide sympathy. “A federal panel appointed to investigate the strike sharply criticized the company's paternalistic policies and refusal to arbitrate, advancing the idea of the need for unions and for increased government regulation in an age of large-scale industrialization.” (Pullman