Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition cancels bridge occupation

by KPFA Evening News, 04.28.2012

Mon, Apr 30, 2012 12:56AM

04.29.2010 On Saturday, April 28th, the Occupy the Bridge May Day coalition announced that the Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition, which represents bridge, ferry, and bus workers in 14 bargaining units, had asked them to call off the bridge action and redirect all efforts towards supporting May Day strike actions and picket lines.

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The decision to call off the Bridge Occupation angered many Occupy activists who had spent considerable time and resources organizing it, arranging transportation, medical and legal aid.

Others called for solidarity and at the 7 am Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza rally and picket lines to support the striking bridge, bus, and ferry workers.

Details at Fog City Journal, http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/4522/golden-gate-bridge-workers-call-off-may-day-bridge-occupation/.

For more information: http://www.anngarrison.com/

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§What did you expect; American labor still sleeps

by Wake up

Mon, Apr 30, 2012 8:24AM

Obviously, the union was threatened and their members still have something more to loose than their chains so they are not ready to go on strike, which they should have done when the contract expired. It is extraordinary that there is any May Day observance at all in this backward country. Concentrate your forces on people who have nothing to loose, the people who have no future, cannot get a university education unless they get a loan, go to such terrible schools that they do not get an education to qualify for any university, experience chronic unemployment, only can get low wage jobs paying less than $20 per hour.

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§We don't yet know what the rank and file had to do with this decision

by Ann Garrison

Mon, Apr 30, 2012 4:16PM

When I asked paid ILPE staffer Alix Tommison about that, he said, “This decision was made by the Coalition as a whole, and that includes rank and file members that have been elected as representatives for each of the fourteen unions that are part of the bargaining team, with feedback from the rank and file itself.”

Alix Tommison is paid staff at IPTE Local 21 - the professional and technical
employees union. http://ifpte21.net/content/staff

The Golden Gate Bridge Workers Coalition has no institutional or procedural identity available online. That doesn't mean I have reason to suspect them, only that I can't really tell who they are or how they operate.

Now the 7 am bridge rally has been called off and the coalition is asking us to support a ferry workers strike, but on this morning's Letters and Politics, on KPFA, one of the guests reported that if the bus and ferry workers strike and the bridge stays open, the Golden Gate Transit Authority will come out ahead, because operating the buses and ferries is more costly than operating the bridge. Per man hour, I'm sure.

Here's a link to the KPFA hour where this came out morning: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/80156

For more information: http://www.anngarrison.com/

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§I meant IPTE, the International Professional and Technical Employees Union

by Ann Garrison

Mon, Apr 30, 2012 4:34PM

Sorry to confuse. Thought I'd deleted that first sentence. Alix Tonnison, the Golden Gate Bridge Workers Coalition press contact on the release that the Bridge Occupation is off, is paid staff at IPTE Local 21 - the professional and technical employees union.
http://ifpte21.net/content/staff

For more information: http://www.anngarrison.com/

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