Occupy Wall Street Comes to Watsonville

Watsonville is under seige, and the goal is to make life better.

For three weeks, the movement has stationed itself in the City Plaza to form "Occupy Watsonville."

The small but growing branch of the Occupy movement saw at least 50 people last weekend when they were joined by labor unions.

“It’s about basic human decency,” said Kathryn Paez, 32, who has been in Watsonville from the beginning.

Perez wanted to bring the issues of movement to her own community. A mother of two children, Paez works as a nurse at Janus in Santa Cruz. 

“I have $50,000 in student loans,” she said about nursing school in San Jose.

Pajaro Valley Unified Schood District Trustee Karen Osmundson, 50, pointed to jobs and job creation as the primary motive for her participation. She said seven of the eight canneries have outsourced their labor. The former teacher has been an activist and involved in union organization.

Paez’s Facebook page alerted Felipe Hernandez, 39, to the cause. He said “predatory loans” especially in the housing market concerned him the most.  Former labor union worker, Hernandez has been unemployed for a year and a half and so is also interested in job creation. 

“I wish I had a sign that said ‘I’d rather be smashing capitalism,’” was how Steve Brady, 62, summed up his position. “We’ve lost sight of the fundamental idea that although greed has a place in the founding of something, greed becomes counterproductive,” Brady said.

Brady, like so many others, pointed to solutions in other countries that provide health care, infrastructure and other services. The economic frustrations are both personal and political across the board.

The "Occupy Watsonville" movement takes over the City Plaza on Saturdays from 12-6 p.m.