Ties between Occupy Wall Street and unions are growing

[cal04]

by Laura Clawson
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/30/1021576/-Ties-between-Occupy-Wall-Street-and-unions-are-growing?via=blog_1

As Chris Bowers reported yesterday, unions are moving to support Occupy Wall Street. Although unions are only now getting officially involved in the current protest, the labor movement has been targeting Wall Street excesses from pushing for financial reform to pushing for a financial transaction tax to shining a light on CEO pay for years, and including several large rallies on Wall Street staged by unions and other progressive organizations in recent years.

Huffington Post notes that:

If unions move to support the protests in a major way, that could mean thousands more people marching in Lower Manhattan. Thus far the protesters have not managed to come near the 10,000 or so who attended the unrelated May 12 march on Wall Street.

Occupy Wall Street protesters have also been reaching out:

"There's a lot of good feeling. They've made a lot of friends," said Chuck Zlatkin of the postal union.

When a band of about 100 protesters showed up at a postal workers' rally featuring Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday, complete with purple hair and big drums, "they went a long way towards touching people and making connections," Zlatkin observed.

WNYC reports that, in addition to the unions Chris named yesterday as planning to join a Wednesday afternoon Occupy Wall Street rally—the Transport Workers Union, SEIU locals, Workers United and the United Federation of Teachers—the Communications Workers of America will also be joining.

Union Members, Wall Street Protesters to Converge at Police Plaza
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/sep/29/union-members-wall-street-protesters-converge-police-plaza/

With all this, there appears to be real movement, from both directions, toward a coalition or at least cooperation between Occupy Wall Street and unions.


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[swilton]

1. YES!

[libmom74]

2. K&R

It's growing! It's ok that it has started out small, the civil rights movement didn't start with hundreds of thousands of people it started with small groups of brave young people sitting in at lunch counters and grew into a movement.