Occupy Boston has received endorsements from the following unions:

Greater Boston Labor Council
AFL-CIO
Local 7 Iron Workers
MTA (Teachers)
Boston School Bus Drivers L#8751
Nurses Association
IBEW 103 (electricians)
SEIU 1199
SUIU 615

via the SouthEndPatch.

Saturday October 8th, Harry and the Potters joined Occupy Boston to play a show for everyone at Dewey Square! They explained Occupy Boston on their website, saying, “These protests are not about liberal or conservative values. They’re about the very basic idea that government should serve the people (and not the corporations). It’s about the hope that we can continue to be a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people.’”

Friday, October 7th, a class of 16 students from Carroll School in Lincoln, accompanied by five faculty members, stopped by to observe Occupy Boston’s encampment. This 9th grade Humanities class is currently studying Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience.

Click here to read more about this on The Occupy Boston Globe. 

MEDIA ADVISORY
For Friday, October 7, 2011, 12 pm  [Updated October 8 at 10:40 am]

1199SEIU will back #OccupyBoston

State’s largest healthcare union to lend resources, support to growing movement

BOSTON, MA – The state’s fastest growing union—1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which is also the state’s largest healthcare union—announced today that it will lend support and resources to the #OccupyBoston movement. Fourty-four thousand hospital, nursing home, home care, and clinic workers in Massachusetts are members of 1199SEIU.

1199SEIU Executive Vice President Veronica Turner issued this statement today:

Because we are of the 99%, 1199SEIU healthcare workers in Massachusetts stand in solidarity with the #OccupyBoston protesters and their demand that Wall Street be held accountable for the current economic crisis.

It is time for large corporations and the super-rich to pay their fair share, so this country can invest in our communities, create jobs, and get back to work. It is time for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act to put millions of Americans back to work. Our country needs jobs, not cuts.

The healthcare workers of 1199SEIU will join #OccupyBoston in the streets and will immediately begin dedicating resources—including medical and printing resources—to promote and sustain the growth of this important push for social and economic justice.

Representing more than 44,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and 350,000 workers in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, and Washington D.C., 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Their mission is to achieve affordable, high-quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

[This advisory was updated to reflect changes made by members of Occupy Boston. We are a horizontal democracy. Every voice matters. Every voice is heard.]

Ben & Jerry’s released this statement of support for the Occupy movement today. Our first corporate endorsement? Weird, but welcome.

We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:

• The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
• We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
• Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
• Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
• Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.

We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.

We know that words are relatively easy but we wanted to act quickly to demonstrate our support. As a board and as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to do. We have provided support to citizens’ efforts to rein in corporate money in politics, we pay a livable wage to our employees, we directly support family farms and we are working to source fairly traded ingredients for all our products. But we realize that Occupy Wall Street is calling for systemic change. We support this call to action and are honored to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy.

— Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors

Link to Original Release