Occupy Wall Street hopes to capture headlines once again this week
with the May 1 “General Strike”, long advertised by the group as an
event that will prove to the public and media that OWS is currently
experiencing a resurgence. Whether workers, students or banking
customers, OWS is calling on all Americans to stop offering their labor
and money to corporations for one day and join their local Occupy
chapter for a day of resistance.
The plan initially drew the ire of some labor leaders who quickly declared their members would not participate in the so-called strike.
“It won’t happen,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store Union, flatly told Buzzfeed. “They are
not working with the unions in a serious way yet; nor are the unions
working with them in a serious way. And it is the wrong strategy.”
Under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, a general strike in support of other
workers is illegal. Furthermore, individual unions must call for a
strike, so the participation of workers in a protest does not constitute
a general strike.
