Vol. 76/No. 8 February 27, 2012
February 27, 1987
NEW YORK—A judge’s verdict is now awaited in the manslaughter trial of Stephen Sullivan, the city cop who shot and killed Eleanor Bumpurs, a 66-year-old Black woman. Sullivan was one of a team of cops who broke into Bumpurs’ city housing apartment to evict her for owing four months on her $98 rent.The nonjury trial ended February 17 with prosecution and defense summations.
The defense argued Sullivan had slain the elderly woman to prevent her from attacking another cop with a kitchen knife. Sullivan’s first shot ripped off part of Bumpurs’ hand. He then fired the shot that killed her.
A doctor testifying for the defense asserted she might have been able to continue wielding the knife with her fourth and fifth fingers, after the remainder were shot off. He acknowledged he was paid $750 for his testimony.
February 26, 1962
Under the influence of the Kennedy administration, the leadership of the United Steelworkers of America has failed to raise the demand for a “shorter work week at no reduction in pay” in the negotiations which opened Feb. 14 for a new contract in the basic steel industry.For the first time in the history of the union, a federal administration has intervened directly in determining what the union’s contract demands should be.
The steel negotiations directly concern 430,000 union members in eleven major steel companies and will probably set a pattern for later negotiations covering 500,000 workers in metal fabricating, aluminum and other industries.
The union, and the labor movement generally, publicized the “shorter work week at no reduction in pay” as labor’s primary answer to unemployment caused by automation.
February 27, 1937
Demanding the 6-hour day and a $6 wage, representatives of the United Mine Workers met soft-coal operators from eight States last week in a conference seeking a new agreement for the pact that expires March 31.The miners are asking a guarantee of 200 working days a year with a basic yearly wage of $1,200 and full right in determining working conditions and the use of machinery in speeding up production.
Prospects of securing the demands of the miners by peaceful negotiation seemed remote as mine operators rejected the proposals of the union as “utterly impossible” and countered with a plan to increase the weekly hours from the present 35 to 40. The owners professed amazement at the demand for a two-week vacation with pay, and declared that other proposals of the miners “were beyond the capacity of the industry.”
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