This is encouraging news. It looks like the unions who have promised to support Occupy Wall Street are going to do more than march -- the TWU is doing whatever they can to obstruct a police crackdown on protestors. There will be a massive march Wednesday with participating unions and Moveon.org taking part in the event:
In support of the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" protest, the Transport Workers Union is going to court to stop its drivers from being required to transport arrested demonstrators.
Local 100 is seeking a restraining order against the police department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Union leaders say drivers' rights were violated when they were forced to bus arrested demonstrators from the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday.
They also say the NYPD commandeered several MTA buses, and in at least one case, passengers were booted from the bus so demonstrators could be loaded up.
"Our operators are not there to transport folks that are arrested, particularly innocent folks that are arrested. That's particularly appalling to Local 100," said John Samuelsen, president of Local 100.
In response, MTA officials said the authority has a long history of cooperating with the police department and other law enforcement agencies when they have transportation needs.
Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators took their fight to City Hall Monday.
Hundreds began what they called a "march of the zombie bankers” to protest greed and express their outrage over the mass arrests this weekend.
Protestors were joined by film producer Amy Goodman, who just settled a suit with Minneapolis St. Paul Police and the Secret Service over her 2008 arrest during the Republican National Convention.
"It is these kinds of public protests, these shows of public dissent where so often the police crackdown, as we have seen with one of the largest mass arrests of protesters in the history of this country just this past weekend," said Goodman.
EDITOR'S NOTE: What I love about this clip is Samuelsen has an Amato accent. Solidarity!
