George Pullman was a well-respected businessman who believed that employees would work willingly as long as they were happy with their living situations and wages. In order to prove this Pullman created a utopian town with satisfactory housing, a church, and a school. He provided these jobs through his factory that created luxury passenger cars for trains his factory were called Pullman Palace Car Company. Things appeared to be perfect at first, everyone was happy and the factory was putting out new cars with great efficiency, but like everything in the world things are not always as great as they appear.
On May 11, 1894 the truth was revealed when the employees walked out in order to protest the unfair wages they were receiving at Pullman Palace Car Company. This is when the Pullman Strike started. The dispute was the result of the "boom and bust" economy (52). After the fair the economy had boomed and the wages were better and the people were happy, but soon after their was a depression that created a loss of profit there for resulted in jobs cutting wages and employees. This economic boom forced Pullman to have to lay off 40% of his current employees. The employees were unhappy with this, and that is why the protest erupted. The protest, at first, was peaceful between the managers and the American Railway Union, but as the amount of workers joining the protest increase so did the hostility (52). Pullman was refusing to negotiate with the workers and, in fact, was giving favoritism towards his employees that lived in his town when he was rehiring. He also never cut managers' salaries or dividends, so his lower class employees were being punished for their social class rather than being treated fairly as a valued employee (52). .
All the workers wanted were fair wages and a fair workplace, but Pullman and the ARU were refusing to respect that. Due to the fact they were not willing to negotiate terms, the business started to decline and have delays.