It's a teensy bit hard to tell what's going on in this video, which shows Occupy Wall Street activists getting kicked out of Sotheby's. Again.
One thing is clear: the pissed-off expressions on the Sotheby's security people.
Here's the OWS explanation of what happened on the youtube page:
Wednesday, Oct 19th. New York -- Activists were physically removed from a Sotheby's art auction in NYC for holding a mock trial to declare the company guilty of crimes against the 99% for locking out their art handlers. Sotheby's made record profits in 2010 ($680 million) yet demanded take-backs from their art handlers (Teamsters Local 814) including the right to strip 401ks and hire "temporary" non-union workers to replace most of the art handling staff.This is just the latest in a series of disruptions that seem to have Sotheby's seriously freaked out.
- Occupy Wall Street activists created disturbances at two Sotheby's auctions and at two restaurants owned by Danny Meyer, a Sotheby's board member.
- British unions held a loud rally outside of a Sotheby's auction in London, forcing billionaire patrons to use a back entrance.
- The British Parliament filed a motion to censure Sotheby's.
- Susan Sarandon showed up at a joint Teamsters-OWS picket line outside of the Manhattan showroom yesterday.
- The best prank of all, ITNHO (in TeamsterNation's humble opinion), was infiltrating a Sotheby's party and videotaping a guest laughing at OWSers for being hungry and poor and marching on billionaires' homes.
Fort Sotheby's now has well over a dozen guards on the auction room floor, checks ID twice on the way in, and has implemented a brand-new rule that in order to enter the auction area, you must give a deposit of $2,500. This is not how Sotheby's wants to run their business, so we are having a serious effect.It's nice to have friends on Wall Street.
