Occupy Wall Street protesters have rallied with Verizon workers and will again (Pete Sikora/CWA)



Occupy Wall Street protesters have rallied with Verizon workers and will again (Pete Sikora/CWA)

Even before unions started endorsing and actively supporting Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street protesters were showing up at union rallies held in Manhattan, including ones supporting formerly striking Verizon workers in their continuing efforts to pressure Verizon to drop some of its many concession demands.

Today, Verizon workers are planning a major rally with Occupy Wall Street, with 1,000 workers going from Verizon headquarters past Zuccotti Park to end their rally near a Verizon Wireless store. Many of the Verizon workers are then planning to spend the night at Zuccotti Park with Occupy Wall Street, offering the chance to deepen relationships with OWS and to take the commitment they put into their own rally and extend it.

As Occupy Wall Street debates whether to offer concrete goals or demands and if so, what those should be, partnering with union campaigns is a way to embrace intermediate goals, things in line with the protesters' values and vision but which no one would mistake for an end game. And unions obviously gain allies and energy.

Today's rally begins at 4:00 at Verizon headquarters (140 West Street) and passes Zuccotti Park at 5:30.