Kicking a** for the working class: Labor Day from Pullman to Market Basket
By the time President Grover Cleveland signed the act declaring the first Monday in September an official federal Labor Day holiday, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company had been on strike over six weeks.
The workers at the railroad car manufacturer had seen their wages cut by almost 25 percent following the panic of 1893, but did not get a commensurate rent reduction from their landlord, who just also happened to be the Pullman company. With families starving and the company president refusing to hear their grievances, workers voted to leave their 16-hour-a-day jobs on May 11, 1894.
The American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs, was not officially an organizer of the walkout, but with some Pullman workers as members, the ARU worked to support the strike. On June 22, ARU delegates voted to initiate a widespread railway boycott if Pullman did not submit to arbitration by June 26.
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