'Occupy Wall Street' Union March Attracts 10000
The “Occupy Wall Street” Union March, represented by over thirty unions, had thousands come out Wednesday afternoon – marching in protest against the “one percent.”
An estimated 10,000 protestors and union members alike marched from Zuccotti Square to Foley Square and back, according to the Associated Press.
Of the unions present, prominent big wigs included the Transport Workers Union (TWU Local 100), which represents the majority of New York’s transit workers, the United Federation of Teachers and United Auto Workers.
TWU Local 100 Director of Publications Alan Saly told The Christian Post that the “Occupy Wall Street” protest has coincided with union beliefs from the beginning.
“There’s too much inequality in society, and not enough investment in America. Not enough support for infrastructure or mass transit,” said Saly.
“We think people deserve access to mass transit,” he added.
Another prominent union attending the march was the United Auto Workers (UAW), which is supporting the “Occupy Wall Street” protest on a national level.
“We are supporting [Occupy Wall Street] because what they are saying about economic injustices is very much in line with how our membership feels […] there is a great deal of affinity,” Maida Rosenstein, president of the UAW local 2110 chapter, told CP.
Rosenstein, who attended the protest yesterday afternoon, contended that America's economic system needed to change, because “people are looking forward to a bad future due to lack of jobs."
NYPD reported 23 arrests at the march, most of which were for disorderly conduct, head police spokesperson Paul J. Brown told The New York Times.
One of the arrested was charged with riot.
While many media sources claim protestors stormed barricades, Rosenstein has a different perspective of what happened on Broadway Avenue in Lower Manhattan yesterday.
“People are trying to be able to walk in the street,” Rosenstein contended.
“I think the fault is on the side of police hierarchy,” she added.
The Occupy Wall Street protest enters its 20th straight day today. Originally beginning with the stereotyped “dirty jobless hippie” following, the protest has diversified to include CUNY professors, celebrities like Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon, and union members, many of whom joined the protest at the beginning of this week.
“We, the people of the United States of America, considering the crisis at hand, now reassert our sovereign control of our land. Solidarity Forever!” read a press release published on the occupywallstreet.org.