Oakland's “day of action” closed shops and halted traffic at the nation’s fifth-largest port. Unions hustled to rally members, building a healthy response for the first occupy action where success required other organizations to mobilize.

The union’s convention this week, in Pittsburgh, showed the UE spirit alive and kicking despite the hammering it’s taken along with the rest of the labor movement.

With state and local governments staring at deep budget gaps, politicians across the spectrum are blaming public sector workers for the river of red ink. “We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” crowed Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s newly elected governor, in a recent speech. Forget about the fact that it was out-of-control bankers and greedy CEOs—the real haves in this country—who derailed the economy three years ago.

The recession has hammered transit agencies across the country. Some 700 New York City transit workers—mostly bus operators and station agents—have been laid off since May and another 200–300 may be gone by the end of the summer.