Chicago hosted the Pullman company town at the center of the 1894 Pullman Strike.
The planned community of Pullman was located on Chicago’s South Side and was built by the Pullman Palace Car Company. Workers lived in company housing and bought services from company-controlled operations. After wages were cut during the economic depression of the 1890s, rents and living costs remained a major source of resentment.
The American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, began a boycott of Pullman cars in May 1894. The dispute spread across much of the national rail network and disrupted mail service.
Federal troops intervened in July 1894. The strike ended after arrests, violence, and the collapse of the boycott. Its aftermath helped create the political setting in which Labor Day received federal recognition.