Impacts of the Pullman Strike on Labor Relations
The extent of the impact of the Pullman strike on labor relations within the United States has been debated by historians. With that said, it is apparent that the Pullman strike certainly did change the course of subsequent labor movements in the United States.
Before federal troops even left Illinois, the men that organized the Pullman strike were indicted. Debs and several other leaders of the ARU were arrested and charged with conspiracy, but the conspirarcy charge was later dropped. Debs and the others eventually turned themselves in during June 18951.
Although Debs and many others did not escape prosecution for the catastrophe that was the Pullman strike, it did create substantial change to how the government mediated labor disputes. After the Pullman strike, "State experiments in the creation of arbitral and mediation boards received a new impetus, laying an important foundation for subsequent labor legislation2. The Pullman strike did significantly change the landscape of labor disputes within the United States. It led state government officials to seek to settle disputes via mediation, something that was not previously used in strikes. This alone was a massive victory for any labor movement in the 1890's, signifying the historical significance of the Pullman strike.
1:Urofsky, Melvin I.. "Pullman Strike". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/event/Pullman-Strike. Accessed 17 April 2023.
2:Wish, Harvey. “The Pullman Strike: A Study in Industrial Warfare.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) 32, no. 3 (1939): 288–312. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40187904.