Powers was elected president of the ITU local in 1961 and faced a December 1962 end of the existing labor contract with the New York Publishers Association, the trade and bargaining association for nine New York City newspapers.
[1][2] After talks failed, he called a strike on December 8, 1962, which ended March 31, 1963, and lasted for 114 days.
Powers gained local and national attention, and his photo was on the cover of Time magazine for the March 1, 1963, issue with the blurb: "Is Labor's Only Weapon a Monkey Wrench?
In return for guaranteed jobs for the printers then working, the publishers were free to computerize (or automate) the setting of type, thus gaining labor savings and faster composing of the page contents for each edition.
[2][4] Powers retired as president of the local in 1990, after the ITU had merged into the CWA in 1987.