American Railway Union

The American Railway Union ( ARU) was the largest union in the 1890s in America and the first industrial union in the United States. It was on June 20, 1893 by railway workers in Chicago, Illinois, under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs ( a locomotive firemen, a few years later socialist presidential candidate ) was founded. The ARU embodied in their policies, unlike other unions, a representation of all railway employees, regardless of whether they were employed as artisans or in the service of customers in a railroad company. Within a year the ARU had hundreds of local chapters and over 140,000 members across the country.

Success

In August 1893, starting shortened the railway company Great Northern Railway, the wages of their employees repeatedly until March 1894. By April, the ARU decided for a strike, thus laying the railroad for 18 days lame. They forced by the Company to redeem the wage cuts in their workers. This was the first union and at the same time their only victory.

Pullman Strike

Similarly, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut down, a sleeping car for trains producing company, their wages five times - by 30 to 70 percent -. Between September 1893 and March 1894 the company had its headquarters in Chicago's Pullman, named after its owner, millionaire George Mortimer Pullman. This industrial town was his "Utopia. " He owned the land, the houses and shops. The workers had to live in his houses and shopping in its stores. Thus he made sure that virtually all wages flowed back again into his pockets.

After the pay cuts, the workers suffered greatly under this constellation because the rents and prices of the products remained the same. His workers formed a committee to voice their complaints. Three of its members were dismissed after the lecture. This in turn led to a spontaneous strike with full stop production on May 11, 1894. Pullman Many workers were now entered the railway union.

In June, a ARU Assembly met in Chicago to talk about the ongoing Pullman Strike. On June 21, the union decided to join in solidarity to the strikers and boycotted Pullman cars. ARU members refused to handle on trains with Pullman cars. The boycott was a great success, especially along the transcontinental railroad lines from Chicago to the West. In response, the Pullman management issued the order, Pullman cars to attach to the mail trains, to gain such support its position on the postal service and to interest the federal government.

With the help of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which had regulated, it was illegal for mergers, restricting trade movements or trade, a judicial ban on July 2, was obtained. It forbade the ARU leadership, " to deny forcing or inducing threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence, train employees or to prevent them from carrying out their duties. " By The next day, U.S. President Cleveland ordered 20,000 soldiers Federal troops, the strike to destroy and to provide for the route. Up to July 7, Debs was arrested and seven other ARU leaders and later charged and convicted of a conspiracy to disrupt the free postal service.

Decline

The strike was finally crushed, while Debs spent six months in jail in Woodstock ( Illinois). The ARU finally broke up. The Pullman Company opened its operation without the dismissed union leaders again. During his stay in prison Debs spent much of his time trying to read the literary works of Karl Marx.