Before boarding the bus to New York City.Teamsters from Local 445 in Rock Tavern, N.Y. are on their way now to join the Occupy Wall Street march, expected to be the biggest yet. Plenty of other union members will be there this afternoon, and students are leaving their classrooms to join in. Watch it live here.
Jeremiah Horrigan at the Times Herald-Record interviewed Sandy Shaddock, business agent for Local 445. He wrote that she saw OWS as different from a typical political rally:
"We usually plan a month in advance, get the press releases out and all that," she said, "but this seems like a whole policy that's always evolving, which is great."
Shaddock, who plans to bring her daughter to the march, said she thought the fact that many protesters are camping out for days in city parks was appropriate to the times:
"I think it reflects the level of the crisis — if you're on unemployment, you can't find a job, why not come down and protest for a week?"Teamsters Local 814 on Long Island City was the first union to join forces with Occupy Wall Street. OWSers have taken actions against Sotheby's, the profitable auction company that locked out Teamsters art handlers during contract negotiations. Local 814 President Jason Ide told Crain's New York Business:
What's so great about it is they've managed to capture a feeling that's out there that decisions are being made that aren't helping 99% of society. We are all being left out. It's something labor should have been saying for a long time.Here are some early tweets from today's march:
@NewYorkist: Big scene #occupywallstreet. Media taken most of Cedar w/ Sat trucks and makeshift studios. Someone just deliverd 5 kegs of kombucha to park
@NationalNurses: #Nurses entered NYC's Liberty Square to raucous applause from #occupywallstreet. People are yelling, "We love you" to RNs. #taxwallstreet
@nydailynews Reporters now on scene for our live blog of the #OccupyWallStreet Protests bit.ly/qenCpIIf you can't be there, you can join in a virtual march in solidarity here. Or find an Occupy event near you at http://www.occupytogether.org/, where they list Occupy meet-up events in 287 cities.
