 
the first major event in which the a.r.u. was involved was a strike on the 
great northern railroad, controlled by james j.[hill. 
three times within a year the great northern had cut wages; three times 
the officers of the railroad brotherhoods had recommended that the men accept 
the cuts. 
disgusted, a number of the men had joined the a.r.u. 
under its rules, in contrast to those of the brotherhoods, a strike could 
be called by a majority of members on the railroad line involved. 
after the third wage cut, the a.r.u. members on the great northern 
declared a strike, although the a.r.u. was so new that not a single lodge had 
as yet been organized. 
the strike was supported not only by a.r.u. members, but by a great many 
other workers, including even the rank and file of the railroad brotherhoods. 
even though brotherhood officials helped the company recruit strikebreakers 
to run the trains, the strike stopped all freight traffic on the line without 
recourse to blockade. 
within little more than two weeks, the company was forced to accept an 
arbitration decision that was practically a complete victory for the workers. 
the victory over jim hill in 1894 had much the same results for the a.r.u. 
that the victory over jay gould had had for the knights of labor in 1885. 
coming in the midst of rising discontent and a series of defeats, the 
victory dramatized for workers everywhere the possibility and power of 
solidarity. 
workers flooded into the a.r.u. 
according to ray ginger, debs" biographer, 
the officers were unable to pass out charters fast enough to keep pace with 
the applications. 
entire lodges of the railway carmen and the switchmen transferred to the 
a.r.u. 
firemen, conductors, even engineers, joined the industrial union. 
