Occupy Wall Street is Killing Small Business

An article from the New York Post

Protesters force cafe layoffs as biz drops

By KEVIN FASICK, SALLY GOLDENBERG and BOB FREDERICKS

Last Updated: 10:00 AM, November 2, 2011

Posted: 2:55 AM, November 2, 2011

They want to change the economy, and now they have -- by putting people out of work!

Heartbroken Shamil Cepeda was one of 21 employees of a once-thriving cafe and catering business who just got fired because the weeks-long Occupy Wall Street protest chased away too many customers.

“I support their freedom of speech but the whole thing is hypocritical if it makes people lose their jobs,” a tearful Cepeda, 23, told The Post yesterday.

“Isn’t that the whole point of the protest?” fumed Cepeda, 23, who had worked at the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St. since it opened in June.

She said she supported the protesters at first -- but now, she’s furious at them.

“I felt really, really angry,” Cepeda said of learning she was a casualty of the supposedly pro-worker movement. “I really enjoyed the job. I liked the people and my co-workers. Everybody was so enthusiastic to make the company go.”

Cepeda also had some common-sense advice for the mash-up of protesters and squatters who have occupied Zuccotti Park since Sept. 17.

“If they would just go get a real job, helping real people, that would help a lot more than just taking up space and shouting at people and putting others they claim to care for out of work,” she declared.

Her former boss, Milk Street Cafe owner Marc Epstein, said he had no choice but to slash staff after Occupy Wall Street caused his business to plummet 30 percent -- and warned he may have to shut down soon.

“We laid off people Friday. We had a staff of about 100,” fumed Epstein. “It’s sad, it’s just so sad.”

He said the ragtag protesters and metal police barricades in front of his once-booming business forced not only Friday’s employee bloodbath but a drastic cut in the eatery’s hours of operation.

“We had to cut back from [closing at] 9 in the evening to just 3:30 in the afternoon,” he said.

The protests, he said, have turned parts of once-bustling Wall Street into a ghost town.

“Wall Street, which is a beautiful pedestrian mall, has for the last six weeks become totally desolate. People aren’t walking here anymore,” he said.

“The food industry does not have anybody in the 1 percent, workers or owners,” said Epstein, who has no love for the protesters.

But he also pointed a finger at the NYPD and City Hall, which he said had ignored his pleas for help.

“I’m saying to all of them, understand the consequences of your actions. As a result of you guys making these decisions, a small business that just invested in your city is threatened, as well as all of the jobs here,” he said.

Also yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and one of his predecessors, Ed Koch, sparred over who caused the nation’s financial turmoil.

“It’s not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp,” Bloomberg said during the 40th- anniversary breakfast of the Association for a Better New York.

“They were the ones that pushed the banks to loan to everybody, and now we want to go vilify the banks because ... It’s easy to blame them.”

But Koch said, “I want to see somebody ... punished criminally. There’s something wrong with a kid who steals a bike going to jail and someone who steals millions paying a fine.”

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver took some shots at the protesters and Bloomberg.

“I asked the mayor to enforce those codes, to enforce the health code while reinforcing the right of people to express themselves,” Silver said, echoing a letter that he and other lawmakers had sent the mayor. People have rights, Silver added, but they “should not include drumming in the middle of night ... defecating or urinating on sidewalks and in places that cause odors, and [they] should not include [police] barriers ... that are infringing on businesses’ right to exist.’’

Other signers of the letter included Rep. Jerrold Nadler, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, all of whose districts include Zuccotti Park.

In another development, the protesters’ security team spotted a man suspected of sex assault in the encampment and notified cops. They took him into custody for questioning.

Additional reporting by Lisa Riordan Seville in New York and Erik Kriss in Albany

rfredericks@nypost

Port of Oakland Operations Halted by Longshoremen.

This video from KGO-TV in Oakland is pretty amazing, especially considering the Occupy Oakland Movement (A part of the Occupy Wall Street Movement) is planning a "blockade" in the city. I can only imagine the traffic headaches this will create. As Mr Roman mentions, this affects ports up and down the West Coast. So if you're on the West Coast near a major port, this could be coming soon!

By Tomas Roman

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Dock workers at the Port of Oakland refused to unload ships that are loaded with what they call explosive contents. At least two terminals at the port were closed Monday night because of the threat. It is an extra challenge for the port already preparing a possible blockade by Occupy Oakland on Wednesday and the backup is extensive.

The longshoreman are refusing to move any containers at certain terminals because they say refrigerated containers that were improperly serviced in Vietnam have already exploded in Vietnam, China, and Brazil. Some of those containers have been found in Oakland and other West Coast ports.
Photos were taken in Vietnam of one of the five refrigerated containers that exploded at a port there last Friday. Three dock workers were killed and 16 were injured. An Oakland longshoreman got hold of the photos, but fears losing his job if he speaks on camera. He learned that some of the same types of containers had arrived here in Oakland Monday morning.

The longshoreman said, "At 8 o'clock this morning we got the word that the containers that were over at SSA were actually some of the containers that were on the list that weren't supposed to get here."

There was a list of refrigerated containers that had been serviced in Vietnam with an unstable form of freon according to the longshoreman's union. They say that's why they exploded.
"They have apparently taken at least three lives and may have injured many more people," said ILWU spokesperson Craig Merrilees.
They were supposed to be taken out before coming to the U.S. The ILWU says they were not and thousands of them are either in ports or out on the water.
"There are potentially thousands of containers being shipped around the world, some that have ended up on docks here in Oakland, they're potentially lethal," said Merrilees.
There are also reports of refrigerated containers exploding in China and Brazil since Thursday. Hundreds of longshoremen on Monday refused to unload any ships or move any containers until those improperly serviced in Vietnam are removed.
"I think we know that at least two terminals, both the SSA and TraPac terminal have been shut down," said Merrilees.
The longshoreman who wanted to remain anonymous said, "Until we get it resolved were not going to work."
If the longshoremen don't work, neither do the truckers. With the terminals closed dozens of trucks line the roads of the port unable to load or unload.
A trucker ABC7 spoke to also wanted anonymity. He said, "I was supposed to turn in my empty containers in and then take loads out and I couldn't do anything." When asked how long he had been there stuck in line, he said, "All day."
So far the U.S. Coast Guard has isolated at least 13 of these problem containers, but they're looking at the same issue in Tacoma, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and in Long Beach.
The Pacific Maritime Association, the longshoreman's union and the shippers are all trying to get together to work this issue out and get the cargo moving.

(Copyright ©2011 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)