Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters blocked access to several major West Coast ports Monday in synchronized demonstrations that fell short of a complete shutdown of West Coast shipping:
Anchorage,AK
Oakland, CA
Long Beach, CA
San Diego,CA
Portland, OR
Longview, WA
Seattle, WA
In many cities, protesters targeted terminals operated by SSA Marine, a shipping company that is locked in a labor dispute with some port truckers, and is partly owned by Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Organizers said Monday's actions were also an expression of support for union workers in Longview, where the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been fighting to ensure its members get jobs at a new shipping facility.
But Monday's protests were not endorsed by ILWU or the other major unions operating at the ports. A spokesman for ILWU, Craig Merrilees, said the union has specific rules about when it can agree to support a protest. "This was not a picket line under the legal terms of the current labor agreement," he said.
Still, the union's president said dockworkers agreed with the goals of the Occupy protesters, who assert that the economic system benefits the richest 1% of Americans at the cost of the other 99%.
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