Unions Vote Unanimously to Support Occupy Wall Street: Who’s Next?

The Transit Workers Union boasts 38,000 members and they voted unanimously to support and join the Occupy Wall Street protesters. This and other union support should help the cause.

Wednesday night the New York Transit Workers Union (TWU Local 100), which represents 38,000 train and bus workers, voted unanimously to support Occupy Wall Street.

This is certainly good news for the Occupation who are attempting, despite cynicism and a media fixated on arrests, to crystallize their message. A strong union’s support should give Occupy Wall Street some needed strength as far as publicity and clarity of vision for those on the Left who are not yet willing to take the protest seriously. The TWU also has something to say about being affected by corporate greed.

They already have the support of Cornel West and the sympathy of journalists like Keith Olbermann and Lawrence O’Donnell, as well as the left’s provocateur Michael Moore.

The TWU has organized the Community/Labor March to Wall Street on Wednesday, October 5th from 4:30 to 7:30pm to, as they say, “welcome the protesters and show the faces of New Yorkers hardest hit by corporate greed.”

The page also states, “Union workers and community members impacted by the economic crisis have been demanding that Wall Street and the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share of taxes.” Touche.

The march is sponsored by United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Working Families Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Coalition for the Homeless and Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP).

The New York Metro Area Postal Union and SEIU 1199, a healthcare workers union, are also planning to throw their support at the Occupation at Wednesday, Oct. 5th rally, according to Crain’s New York.

SEIU 32BJ, a 70,000-strong union representing doormen, security guards and maintenance workers, is repurposing its October 12th rally to back OWS. 32BJ spokesman Kwame Patterson, according to Huffington Post, is quoted as saying ”we’re all coming under one cause, even though we have our different initiatives.”

It should be noted that this support goes both ways—on Tuesday, OWS protesters marched to a United States Postal Service rally to support the postal workers. Michael Kink, director of The Strong Economy for All Coalition, explained, “Their fight is our fight… They’ve chosen the right targets. We also want to see a society where folks other than the top 1 percent have a chance to say how things go.”

It’s about time the rest of New York City and America, who already have the indignation, to join the movement. Intuitively, many hundreds of millions of Americans know Occupy Wall Street is right in their attempts to change the political and financial tapestry of America.

The Occupation knows that we cannot count on politicians to do it—that a vote in an election and a prayer that a politician will represent our best interests is wishful thinking at best and delusion at worst. We should thus applaud the unions for taking up the cause alongside Occupy Wall Street.

Now, join the 99% in showing the richest 1% in this country that they should start trembling.

Wake up.