Occupy Oakland and Unions

About 1,000 demonstrators blocked the intersection of 12th Street and Broadway on Wednesday, November 2, 2011. The Occupy Oakland general strike marched in a loop around downtown Oakland, CA. They have planned actions today to disrupt business. The city of Oakland is open for business. The Port of Oakland is not shut down, said ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees. The demonstration aims to shut down the city by targeting banks, corporations, and the Port of Oakland in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy movement.

Several labor unions are urging their members to join the day of action. Unions representing Oakland’s public school teachers, community college instructors, city government workers and University of California, Berkeley teaching assistants have endorsed the strike. The California Nurses Association is encouraging its members to participate. However, the Oakland police union slammed Mayor Jean Quan for her “flip-flop” stance on the city’s Occupy protests. They questioned her motives and why the city plans to beef up its police presence at strike-related events while giving other city workers leeway to participate. “I am working with the police chief to make sure that the pro-99 percent activists – whose cause I support – will have the freedom to get their message across without the conflict that marred last week’s events,” Mayor Quan said.

The mayor is painting us as the bad guys in all of this,” Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland police union, told AP. “We get one order one day and then she flip-flops the next day. We’re going to be seen as the establishment, and it’s not fair to the police.

BTW, see this excellent post by Kira Davis for more information.