{"id":325,"date":"2012-01-05T16:48:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T16:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2012\/01\/05\/occupy-wall-street-and-organized-labor-julia-tomassetti-2011\/"},"modified":"2012-01-05T16:48:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T16:48:32","slug":"occupy-wall-street-and-organized-labor-julia-tomassetti-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2012\/01\/05\/occupy-wall-street-and-organized-labor-julia-tomassetti-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupy Wall Street and Organized Labor – Julia Tomassetti (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nOccupy Wall Street and Organized Labor<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Julia Tomassetti, UCLA Department of Sociology<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe relationship between the budding Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS) and Organized Labor in the United States has ranged from easy to fraught, and from casual to engaged. OWS at first received a mixed reception from many labor leaders, who were concerned about publicly allying with what they felt might become a radical fringe movement. Also there were evident cultural and demographic tensions between Organized Labor and OWS. Unionized workers tend to be older and hold conventional jobs; the mostly younger OWS activists tend to be casualized workers who, for legal and institutional reasons, are often excluded from unions.
\nSeveral of the country\u2019s largest unions eventually endorsed OWS and offered support. On October 5, 2011, thousands of members from the Transport Workers Union (TWU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Federation of Teachers, United Auto Workers, and other unions marched with OWS participants in New York.[1] Unions have since participated in many OWS marches and rallies. They have donated cash, and provided protestors with amenities like blankets, rain ponchos, shower facilities, first-aid tables, and flu shots.[2]
\nLabor organizations have also participated in, and supported, OWS in civil disobedience and direct action. Unions lobbied and demonstrated against the evictions of Occupiers in New York and Los Angeles.[3] TWU bus drivers refused to transport OWS arrestees.[4] And, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry was arrested with OWS activists in the October 5 action.[5] In New York, OWS and several labor-affiliated groups have cooperated in occupying foreclosed homes.[6]
\nLikewise, Occupiers have brought the OWS tactic of creative disruption to the union picket line. In November, Occupiers joined forces with Teamsters who worked as art handlers for Sotheby\u2019s, an upscale art auction house in New York City. Sotheby\u2019s had locked the workers out of their jobs in August. Occupiers interrupted the auctions, blocked the entrance, and trailed Sotheby\u2019s board members.[7]
\nUnion leaders are taking heed of what makes the OWS movement so popular and salient. Some have begun to adopt OWS tactics, including the confrontational disruption, extensive use of social media, and messaging of \u201cthe 99%.\u201d[8]
\nSome have suggested that the two need one another: As a young movement, both in terms of its recent historical advent and the age of its participants, OWS could benefit from the labor movement\u2019s organizing experience. Likewise, OWS can contribute an egalitarian structure, strategic agility, and incorruptible social critique to the bureaucratic structure and outlook of many unions. OWS\u2019 sweeping analytical and active denunciation of inequality, financial speculation, and corporate political influence \u2014 and its ability to shift the national debate from deficits to inequality\u2014provides a context that could enable unions to mobilize around particular organizing, electoral, or policy goals. Unions could also help unify and channel the social concerns enunciated by OWS into concrete action plans.[9]
\nDespite apparent demographic, cultural, and political differences between union members and Occupiers, OWS has helped to swell the ranks of union membership in the U.S. and increase unions\u2019 popular esteem. In the week following the OWS protests across the country in early October, the AFL-CIO signed up a record 25,000 recruits.[10]
\nThe potential for symbiosis also creates conflict. OWS\u2019 premise that the system is fundamentally broken, and that neither business nor government leaders are willing or able to accede to demands for its transformation, is at odds with many labor leaders\u2019 concern with achieving what seems politically feasible in the short-run.[11] Further, OWS\u2019 perspective — a combined critique of war, environmental degradation, globalization, inequality and corporate greed — sometimes conflicts with unions\u2019 focus on protecting members. For example, several construction unions support the oil and gas industry\u2019s campaign for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and use the OWS rhetoric of \u2018the 99%\u2019 to argue that the project will create jobs. However, many Occupiers oppose the pipeline on the grounds that it will create environmental damage and provide a relatively small number of low quality jobs.[12]
\nSimilarly, OWS\u2019 resounding commitment to nonpartisanship conflicts at times with Organized Labor\u2019s allegiance to the Democratic Party. This conflicts with what is perhaps the most central demand of OWS — to get money out of politics.[13]
\nLast month\u2019s West-Coast Port Shutdown put these conflicts between organized labor and OWS into sharp relief. On November 22, OWS activists shut down the Portland, Longview, and Oakland ports in an effort to show solidarity with port truckers in Los Angeles who have been unable to unionize and to publicize a Longview terminal operator\u2019s decision to replace longshore union (ILWU) members with cheaper workers. The ILWU did not officially support the shutdown and accused Occupy Oakland of costing its workers a day of pay. Occupiers criticized ILWU leadership for narrowly interpreting worker interests, for example, by disregarding the costs of port pollution to surrounding working-class communities. Despite the mutual accusations, some suggest that ILWU leadership was not opposed to, and perhaps welcomed the shutdown. ILWU\u2019s no-strike clause legally forbade them from supporting the shutdown, but their respect for the picket line suggested strategic complicity.[14]
\nAs a broad populist movement, OWS has focused attention on the enormity of inequality in the U.S., a concern that resonates with union members and nonunion workers alike. Its emphasis on economic insecurity — whether as a debt-laden college graduate, a displaced manufacturer, or a war veteran — is creating a new sense of class cohesion. While the fate of OWS remains to be seen, it has already formed the basis for new alliances, new strategies, and new forms of political engagement.
\n______________________________
\nNotes<\/strong>
\n[1] Steven Greenhouse and Cara Buckley, \u201cMajor Unions Join Occupy Wall Street Protest,\u201d The New York Times, October 5, 2011, sec. N.Y. \/ Region, http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/06\/nyregion\/major-unions-join-occupy-wall-street-protest.html.
\n[2] Steven Greenhouse, \u201cOccupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics,\u201d The New York Times, November 8, 2011, sec. Business Day, http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/09\/business\/occupy-movement-inspires-unions-to-embrace-bold-tactics.html.
\n[3] Mark Brenner and Jenny Brown, \u201cAt Sotheby\u2019s and Beyond, \u2018Occupy\u2019 Movement Boosts Unions,\u201d Labor Notes, November 10, 2011, http:\/\/labornotes.org\/2011\/10\/sothebys-beyond-occupy-movement-boosts-unions.
\n[4] Michelle Goldberg, \u201cUnions Join Occupy Wall Street,\u201d The Daily Beast, October 4, 2011, http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2011\/10\/03\/occupy-wall-street-transport-workers-union-seiu-to-join-protests.html.
\n[5] Miranda Neubauer, \u201cWhat Organized Labor Could Learn From Occupy Wall Street,\u201d Techpresident.com, December 13, 2011.
\n[6] Justin Elliott, \u201cOccupy\u2019s next frontier: Foreclosed homes,\u201d Salon.com, November 30, 2011, http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2011\/11\/30\/occupys_next_frontier_foreclosed_homes\/singleton\/.
\n[7] Mark Brenner and Jenny Brown, \u201cAt Sotheby\u2019s and Beyond, \u2018Occupy\u2019 Movement Boosts Unions.\u201d
\n[8] Greenhouse, \u201cOccupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics.\u201d
\n[9] Ibid.; Neubauer, \u201cWhat Organized Labor Could Learn From Occupy Wall Street.\u201d
\n[10] Greg Sargent, \u201cWhat if working class Americans actually like Occupy Wall Street?,\u201d The Washington Post – Blogs, October 17, 2011, http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/plum-line\/post\/what-if-working-class-americans-actually-like-occupy-wall-street\/2011\/10\/17\/gIQAniVzrL_blog.html.
\n[11] Mark Brenner and Jenny Brown, \u201cAt Sotheby\u2019s and Beyond, \u2018Occupy\u2019 Movement Boosts Unions.\u201d
\n[12] Justin Elliott, \u201cKeystone XL splits unions and Occupy Wall Street,\u201d Salon.com, November 7, 2011, http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2011\/11\/07\/keystone_xl_splits_unions_and_occupy_wall_street\/singleton\/.
\n[13] Paul Quinlan, \u201cOccupy DC distances from Democrats. Or does it?,\u201d Salon.com, December 2, 2011, http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2011\/12\/02\/occupydc_distances_from_democrats_or_does_it\/singleton\/; see also, Greenwald, Glenn, \u201cHere\u2019s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like,\u201d Salon.com, November 19, 2011, http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2011\/11\/19\/heres_what_attempted_co_option_of_ows_looks_like\/singleton.
\n[14] Loftis, Emily, \u201cOccupy vs. Big Labor,\u201d Salon.com, December 9, 2011, http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2011\/12\/09\/occupy_vs_big_labor\/; Lee Sustar, \u201cOrganizing for the port shutdown,\u201d SocialistWorker.org, December 8, 2011, http:\/\/socialistworker.org\/2011\/12\/08\/organizing-for-the-port-shutdown; Malia Wollan and Steven Greenhouse, \u201cOccupy Oakland Angers Labor Leaders,\u201d The New York Times, December 13, 2011, sec. U.S., http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/14\/us\/occupy-oakland-angers-labor-leaders.html?_r=3&hp.
\nThis article appeared in the GALS Newsletter (December 2011, Vol. 11, No. 3) of the UCLA Globalization and Labor Standards Project (University of California Los Angeles). Katherine V.W. Stone \u00ad is Editor and Project Director. <\/em>
\nTo subscribe to the GALS Newsletter send the following email to
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