Gilded Age Industry, Labor Unions, and Economic Reform Practice Test

The event centers on a company town owned by the employer. The Pullman Strike grew out of the Pullman Car Company creating and operating a town—Pullman, Illinois—where workers lived in company-owned housing, paid rents that did not fall even as wages were cut, and received wages in company scrip. When the company reduced pay while maintaining high living costs, workers organized with the American Railway Union under Debs, triggering a nationwide railroad boycott. Because the town and much of the work were controlled by a single employer—the Pullman Company—the strike is closely tied to that company’s town.