Occupy Oakland's plan to shut down the city's bustling port on Monday for the second time in as many months is facing a complicating wrinkle nowhere in sight last time - opposition from several unions and some within the Occupy movement itself.

The attempted shutdown will be part of a coordinated blockade of 11 West Coast ports from San Diego to Anchorage, Alaska, an effort conceived by Occupy Oakland to build on the success of the Nov. 2 general strike it led that closed the city's port for more than six hours.

But unlike last time, when the area's major unions gave tacit or outright approval, many of them see Monday's action as disruptive and unnecessary.

And some occupation activists are labeling it as too confrontational, with the protest's potential for violence detracting from Occupy's stated intention of narrowing the chasm between rich and poor.

"Support is one thing," Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union, wrote to his members last week. "Outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process."

Not the 1 percent

The Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council's secretary-treasurer, Andreas Cluver, said many of his union's workers were recently hired at port building projects after long stretches on unemployment. Given that, a port shutdown aimed at punishing the 1 percent "makes no sense," he said.

He said no union at the port supports the shutdown.

"We're extremely supportive of the message of Occupy Oakland, and we did come out to support the Nov. 2 general strike, but we're not behind this one," Cluver said. "When working people aren't involved in the decision on whether to shut down their jobs at the port, that's problematic. And we weren't consulted. Losing a day of wages is hard."

He added: "The port is a public entity. It's really not the 1 percent. Go shut down a country club - that's the 1 percent."

Together, the unions represent more than 1,400 workers at the port. Other unions that have refused to endorse the shutdown, including the California Nurses Association, declined to comment - all apparently not wanting to antagonize protest organizers.

Timid stance

Shutdown planners, who include several union workers, said the opposition reflects a timid stance of some labor leadership and not the views of members themselves.

"The American working class is in a state of emergency," said third-generation longshore union member Clarence Thomas, a shutdown organizer.

He said his union traditionally does not cross what is known as a community picket line - a protest so large it blocks access to a workplace. If that tradition does not hold Monday, Thomas asked, "How can we expect to get the support of the community when we do our actions?"

However, some activists in the roughly 30 other Occupy organizations in the Bay Area have also concluded that a port blockade is too extreme. They say confronting police and blockading commerce is as outdated as they now regard the tent cities recently cleared by authorities.

In fact, outside of major cities, some activists so strongly disagree with confrontational tactics that they now call themselves "99 Percenters" rather than "Occupiers."

Hurting innocents

"The 99 percent is nonconfrontational," said Ellis Goldberg, a marketer who has organized Occupy protests in Dublin and San Ramon. "You don't use a bat to get your point across, and this port action is a bat. It's going to hurt innocents - in this case, port workers and truckers."

Michele Horaney of Alameda, who helped place an advertisement in The Chronicle last week pushing "99 percent" reform measures including "taxing wealth more and labor less," said she views the split as emblematic of Occupy's growing pains.

"The movement is evolving, and that means there will be many different tactics," Horaney said. "What it will eventually look like, we don't know yet."

Even truckers, who are not unionized, are split on the issue.

"I'll be losing about $700 for the day, and I have to use that to pay for my fuel and truck and all my expenses, but I'm glad they're going to shut the port down," said Joe Yovanny of San Mateo, who was hauling recycled paper from the waterfront Friday. "They need to make a statement. We truckers need better treatment."

Waste of 'time and money'

Nearby, changing a tire on his rig before he also left with a load of paper, Hai Ngo 0f San Leandro said he resented the loss of income.

"The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this," Ngo said. "I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts. It's just a waste of our time and money, and won't accomplish anything."

The Oakland Education Association, one of the more active supporters of the Occupy movement, is apparently the only major union to endorse the blockade. The association represents Oakland teachers.

"We've been pushing the port for years to work with the school district, to contribute," said association President Betty Olson-Jones. "For instance, why not put a small tax on passengers coming into the airport, to help fund education?"

Early morning march

Organizers plan to muster activists at the West Oakland BART Station to begin marching on the port at 5:30 a.m., and continue all day and into the late evening.

The coordinated protests could have a huge impact on commerce up and down the coast. The Port of Los Angeles is the nation's busiest shipper of containers, Long Beach is second, and Oakland is fifth.

During the Nov. 2 shutdown, tens of thousands of people swarmed the Oakland port, and police mostly kept their distance. This time, however, protesters may encounter layers of security unique to the port - and Oakland city officials, including Mayor Jean Quan, said Friday that they intend to keep the port open and operating.

Oakland police and the California Highway Patrol work nearby streets, while the port has partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with private security guards.

Shields urged

One organizer, Boots Riley, has been urging people on his Twitter feed to bring shields so they can "push through a police line, blocking themselves from batons and bullets."

He dismisses criticism of the shutdown as shortsighted.

"To the folks who argue that an action against the corporations hurts the workers, what are they doing to help the workers?" Riley said. "We're building working-class unity. The only way you're going to loosen that grip is by the 99 percent realizing that the collective withholding of labor is the only way to change the wealth relationship."