George Pullman, owner of the Pullman Company in Chicago, Illinois, manufactured and operated first class railroad cars across the nations major railroads. Pullman led people to believe his workers were well paid; however, after the onset of the 1983 economic depression, his workers believed otherwise. During the economic depression, Pullman lowered labor costs by reducing the labor force by about forty percent and cutting wages an average of twenty-five percent. The Pullman workers soon went on strike and joined with the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene Debs. The ARU influenced the workers to put pressure on Pullman, refusing to run trains with Pullman sleeping cars attached and telling trains they could operate without Pullman cars,