As soon as the Occupy Wall Street spinoffs began popping up in Austin, Dallas and Houston, local labor unions stepped up to endorse the movements around the state, in keeping with many of their national parent organizations.“We’re just going as participants,” Texas AFL-CIO spokesman Ed Sills told the Texas Independent before the Austin protest’s first day. “We haven’t organized it.”
Now that the demonstrations have turned into campouts — proper “occupations” of city parks — workers’ unions continue to have a presence at Occupy protests, as union spokesmen stress their groups aren’t calling the shots or financing the efforts.
For demonstrators wary of being, or appearing to be, co-opted by larger groups, there’s a delicate balance required as they accept support from workers that believe in their cause.
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