Biography
The pressmen's strike against The Washington Post began before dawn on October 1, 1975, when members of Local 6 of the International Printing and Graphic Communications Union disabled all 72 of the paper's press units and beat the night foreman, James Hover. The Post hired permanent replacements, broke the union, and the District's pressmen voted to decertify Local 6 in March 1977 — a landmark defeat for organized labor. A federal grand jury indicted fifteen pressmen over the pressroom violence, while none of the workers who crossed the picket line and clashed with strikers were charged; supporters denounced the prosecutions as a selective, union-busting "frame-up" that drained the local's resources through legal-defense costs. Fourteen pressmen pleaded guilty in April 1977 to misdemeanors — ranging from disorderly conduct to simple assault — after prosecutors dropped the felony charges, and were sentenced on May 19, 1977 by D.C. Superior Court Judge Sylvia Bacon, who declared that "the existence of a labor dispute or a strike does not justify violence." Their sentences were met with protest rallies outside the courthouse.
Eugene E. O'Sullivan was sentenced to 120 days in the District's work-release program, plus a suspended jail term and one year's probation. In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described O'Sullivan and Cecil Rust as "the leaders and catalysts for the violence, damage and destruction."