Union marchers swell ranks of OccupyMN protesters, join in march on banks

Union marchers swell ranks of OccupyMN protesters, join in march on banks

Bob Von Sternberg
Minneapolis Star Tribune
October 29, 2011

Union leaders headlined a day of OccupyMN street theater Saturday, capped when about 300 protesters marched peacefully across downtown Minneapolis, denouncing the region's three biggest banks.

"Banks got bailed out -- we got sold out!" was one of several chants delivered during the march.

Earlier, at the Hennepin County Government Center plaza, the local branch of the movement inspired by Occupy Wall Street got endorsements from several union leaders.

"We'll be in the streets until the one percent give up some of their wealth to the 99 percent," said Elliot Seide, who heads the union representing 40,000 state, county and municipal workers. "This protest is going to change this country. It ought to be all the people who share the wealth of this great nation."

Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of the union that represents 5,000 janitors, security guards and commercial housekeepers, told the crowd, "This movement will change this country," adding that its overarching goal is to have "the richest 1 percent pay their fair share." <----- GROAN

"We need to stand up and yell and be the 99 percent," said Michelle Sommers, president of the union that represents Metro Transit bus drivers. "We need to get off our couches and start acting like the 99 percent."

The occupiers then marched through downtown streets to deliver cardboard coffins to the headquarters of the closed headquarters of TCF Bank, U.S. Bank and a drive-through branch of Wells Fargo Bank.

Shadowed by Minneapolis police and supported by horn-honking drivers, they alternated their chants:

"Hey, hey -- ho, ho. Corporate greed has got to go!"

"We are the 99 percent!"

"What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like!"

Well after the march, as the sun went down, the number of occupiers at the plaza had dwindled to fewer than 50.

Elliot Seide is a clown. "We'll be in the streets until..." the rich give US their money. Who the fuck does he think he is demanding someone else give him their money???? This ISN'T what 'democracy' looks like. This is what MOB rule looks like. This really ignorant of reality unbathed brats want to force their will onto the majority who disagree with them. That's not democracy and never has been. Show up and vote. THAT'S democracy! Never mind the fact we don't live in a democracy. We live in a Representative Republic. Gawd, I'm so sick of these people that I could just scream.

The OWS mob are morons. They are examples of what goverment schools produce.

We are a nation of idiots thanks to government schools.

If this dependent mentality comes to rule, we are truly screwed.

I have no real problems with labor unions, so long as they represent their memberships honestly. There's no reason why workers cannot meld their services to create a better working environment for themselves. I find the same true for the consumer in general. The free market has many gears; labor and consumers are two very important ones.

Where I get crinkled is when the unions become opposites of corporate hegemony and the consumer ends up catching all the crap that rolls downhill. Example: Organizations like the UAW have all but destroyed the competitiveness of American car makers because of a very base greed. The corporate has to raise prices to satisfy their own rigid profit margins and the guy out wanting to buy American gets a lesser product at an enhanced price so that CEOs have their golden parachutes and the unions can leech and the no-Monday show workers can survive a hangover.

The abuse of the system is rife.