The great
Pullman Strike of
1894 occurred when three-thousand
Pullman Palace Car Company[?] workers went on a "wildcat" (without
Union approval) strike in
Illinois starting on
May 11 of that year. The men were protesting job, wage and working hour cuts initiated by
George Pullman (who was responding to a fall-off of business in 1894) on the one hand while he did not lower rents, utility charges and the cost of products to his workers on the other.
The strike (
http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/index.html#PullmanStrike), which effectively shut down passenger
rail after the unions of many
railroads decided to not pull Pullman cars, was eventually broken-up by federal troops sent in by President
Grover Cleveland. Cleveland claimed the strike interfered with delivery of U.S. mail. In the end, 13 strikers were killed and 57 wounded.