Occupy Efforts Fall Short

As the Occupy Wall Street protests began to wind down last month, the leaders of the movement called for one last desperate move to try and infuse some life into the movement. As the call for the shutdown of ports along the west coast went out, it seemed that this try might have some success.

But it wasn’t to be. First off, the longshoremen who run the ports refused to join the folks aligned with the Occupy movement. This lack of support from the unions is understandable. When many democrats and other liberals are quickly backing off of their support to the movement, the unions followed suit. Plus, when you think of how difficult times are right now, taking a day off without pay may not be in the budget for most of these folks who work the docks. Unlike many of the Occupy folks, the union people actually have jobs.

Today was the big day when the Occupy people were going to gather and shutdown commerce along the west coast. A funny thing happened on the way to this utopia: commerce wasn’t impacted in the least. A few routes into the ports were disrupted for a few minutes by a few hundred people at the various locations:

A Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train was delayed north of Seattle.

Protesters briefly shutdown the access to the Seattle port.

In Portland, workers were told to stay home, without pay, for the day to avoid any confrontations.

Up in Vancouver, Canada, protester shutdown to access points for less than 30 minutes, barely causing a ripple.

Weather in LA significantly reduced participation and caused minimal disruptions.

All in all, I would have to say this wound up being a failure on the Occupier’s part.