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| Teamsters were among the peaceful marchers in DC. |
Teamsters marched and rallied all over the country today, just as they did in the spring and just as they have been doing throughout their 108-year history.
They brought the Teamster truck to a march on Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore.; they held rallies at airports in Dallas and Los Angeles; they marched down K Street in Washington, D.C.; they converged on Foley Square in New York City; they rallied on a bridge in Denver; they joined the chants in Kiener Plaza in St. Louis; and they marched around a giant insurer in Hartford.
Right now, Teamsters from Joint Council 7 are headed to the camp in San Francisco's Financial District to try to fend off an expected eviction. Writes Rudy Gonzalez, representative for Joint Council 7:
We are staying through the night to help keep it peaceful.Groups of Teamsters from Local 117 in are leaving the union hall now, heading toward the rally and march to University Bridge in Seattle.
Many of the rallies and marches ended at bridges that need repair. The point, of course, is that the bridges need work -- and so do we.
Stories of other actions can be found here and here.
Teamsters are rallying at the Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth airports in solidarity with Qantas workers who were locked out last month. According to the press release,
Qantas employees represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and other major unions have tried to negotiate a fair contract that curbs the outsourcing of good Australian jobs but have been rebuffed by management. The Teamsters, the largest union of transportation workers in the U.S., represents the international crew that handles Qantas (QAN:AU) freight.We're getting much of our information from Twitter, which tells us Teamsters are among the thousands of protesters in New York City. The live feed is reporting Teamsters are among the unions at a rally in Foley Square, where crowd estimates are as high as 10,000.
Here's what we hear from @canyonjunkie:
Students, teamsters, THE PEOPLE converging, Foley square, Union Square, Broadway...thousands converging.And @Geekananda tweets:
Teamsters called a protest at Brookfield Properties 1 pm tomorrow because of evictions! Amazing!In Connecticut, George Corneliusson, a Teamster retiree from Local 671, was proud to represent his union at Occupy Wall Street in Hartford today. Writes George,
Let us not forget (We the people) true Americans believe in equality!The Associated Press summed up the day,
Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the U.S. on Thursday to mark two months since the movement's birth and signal they aren't ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police. More than 200 people were arrested, most of them in New York.
The marches were for the most part peaceful, with only scattered clashes between police and demonstrators. Most of the arrests were for blocking streets, the traffic disruptions were brief, and the turnout, at least in New York, fell well short of what police had been expecting.We're quite certain Teamsters Occupied other cities, but it may take a few days for reports to filter in.
