R&F Remembers: Labor Day

Labor Day Parade 1882, Ney York

Many people know Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer, and indeed I will be getting my fair share of sea bathing in this week. What most Americans do not remember is how and why Labor Day came about, and as America once again grapples with high unemployment and new ways for thinking of ‘work,’ I thought it may be a good time to remember the original Labor Day.

Labor Day was conceived during the Industrial Revolution, first in Europe, then in the States. It was declared a federal holiday in 1894, and was a concession the US government made to Labor Unions after a nationwide railway strike lead to a bloody confrontation between the US Military, US Marshalls and Railway Strikers. In the end, the strike left 13 people dead, hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage and a shared public dislike for the Pullman Palace Car Company and its style of factory business.

The Pullman Strike began in 1894 after a depression in 1893 resulted in decreased demand for Pullman cars. The Pullman Palace Car Company responded by cutting wages 25%. Workers in turn staged a “wildcat strike” on May 11, 1894, or in other words worker went on strike without the authorization of their unions. However, many of these workers were already a part of a very powerful industrial union, the American Railway Union (ARU). When the ARU got wind of the affair, leader Eugene Debs organized a nationwide boycott in which railway workers refused to switch Pullman cars. This was significant as the ARU was the largest union of the day and, unlike craft unions, incorporated all railway workers regardless of craft or service. This meant that if the ARU went on strike, workers from all over the country of various trades and crafts would not work.

Eugene Debs: Lead of the powerful American Railway Union 

The ARU boycott began on June 26, 1894. The ARU refused to move any train with a Pullman Car with one important exception: cars carrying mail. This was to prevent the involvement of federal troops.  On June 29^th Debs held a rally to gain support for the boycott, unfortunately lingering crowds after the rally were so wound up they set fire to buildings and derailed a train.

George Pullman: Known for the sleeper car, and brutally suppressing a Labor Strike

While President Cleveland had been reluctant up to this point to call in federal troops, on July 3, 1894 he did just that after Debs and other Labor leaders ignored a court injunction which made the strike essentially illegal.  US Marshalls and some additional 12,000 military were called in to Chicago to break up the strike.

Debs was eventually found guilty of ignoring the court injunction and was sentenced to six months in prison. However, he remained a champion of labor and a prominent Socialist in American politics.

The Governor of Illinois at the time, John Altgeld, was so riled by Cleveland calling in federal troops to handle the strike that he managed to block his bid for re nomination at the 1896 Democratic National Convention.

Pullman remained unpopular with the public. When he died he was buried in the middle of the night, had his coffin lined with lead and had a few tons of concrete poured over his grave to prevent possible desecration.