The Pullman Strike took place near Chicago shortly before Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894.
The strike began after the Pullman Company reduced workers’ wages without reducing rents in the company town of Pullman, Illinois. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, supported a boycott of trains carrying Pullman cars. The disruption spread across much of the country.
The federal government obtained an injunction and sent troops to enforce the movement of trains and mail. Violence broke out, and the strike collapsed in July 1894. Debs was arrested and later became a major socialist political figure.
President Grover Cleveland signed the Labor Day law on June 28, while the strike was still underway. The holiday therefore emerged amid intense labor conflict, although its origins predated the strike and reached back to the parades and campaigns of the 1880s.