Free Republic

Mom-and-pop shops aren't the only ones closing their doors to support immigrants as part of the "A Day Without Immigrants" protests. Several McDonald's locations have also shuttered for the day. The nationwide event is a combination of a protest and a strike. It is in response to President Donald Trump's immigration agenda, which has included a pledge to build a wall along the Mexican border and enact a travel ban on citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries. "The purpose of the protest is to show just how disruptive immigration changes by the government could impact consumers' everyday life," Darren Tristano, president...

The shrieking banshees behind the vagina-spangled Women’s March have decided that parading through the streets of D.C. covered in cardboard genitalia just isn’t enough – we need a strike. The Women’s March tweeted out Monday morning a call for a women’s strike: [captured tweet about women's strike] It’s not clear what all the “strike” would entail, and there wasn’t an attached date so the rest of us can plan our celebrations accordingly. Or plan to pour bleach in our eyes, depending on the abundance of anatomical signage and furry armpits. The march and the future strike are just two examples...

Concerned that protests might be too easy to ignore, activists are now calling for a nationwide strike in order to demonstrate just how many people disapprove of President Donald Trump. First proposed in a column for The Guardian on Monday, American writer Francine Prose called for a "nonviolent national general strike" that can't be "easily ignored and forgotten by those who wish to ignore and forget them." "Let’s designate a day on which no one (that is, anyone who can do so without being fired) goes to work, a day when no one shops or spends money, a day on...

Newly minted Secretary of Defense James Mattis celebrated his first full day at the Pentagon by overseeing 31 strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Mattis entered the Pentagon Saturday with a smile for his first full day of work, and for good reason, considering the significant bombardment ISIS forces received. A variety of fighters, bombers and remotely piloted aircraft engaged in the bombing run, which saw 25 strikes in Syria and six in Iraq. In Syria, two strikes destroyed ISIS units and artillery near the town of Bab. ISIS forces in Raqqa, the terrorist group’s de facto capital,...

Euronews, the rolling news channel which was set up to provide a European counterpoint to the American news network CNN, has been reduced to a second-rate news service broadcasting “sponsored” propaganda programs for oppressive regimes, its journalists and unions say. Staff at the multi-language channel — which gets about a third of its funding in subsidies from the European Union — went on strike this week after workers backed a no-confidence motion against the station’s management. […] Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are among a list of undemocratic regimes — where human rights abuses are widespread — which have paid...

Philadelphia transit strike ended Monday as the Transport Workers Union and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority reached a contract agreement. SEPTA and TWU Local 234 announced a tentative five year contract, ending the strike and phasing back in workers. Full service is expected to be restored on Tuesday morning. SEPTA Board Chairman Pasquale Deon said the contract is a fair deal that provides "wage increases, pension improvements, and maintains health care coverage levels while addressing rising costs." The deal is still subject to ratification by union members and must be approved by the SEPTA board.

Despite last minute negotiations and a visit from Democratic heavy-hitter Congressman Bob Brady, 4,738 SEPTA workers walked off the job Monday night, beginning a strike that halted subways, trolleys and buses in Philadelphia. "We are not able to come to an agreement with SEPTA so as of 12:01 a.m. we're on strike," said Willie Brown, president of Transportation Workers Union Local 234, which represents almost 5,000 SEPTA workers who are hitting the picket lines Tuesday morning.

Faculty at 14 Pennsylvania state universities went on strike Wednesday morning, affecting more than 100,000 students, after contract negotiations between the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and the faculty union hit an impasse. The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties announced on its website that its members went on strike at 5 a.m. because no agreement could be reached. The union represents more than 5,000 faculty and coaches across the state, and a walkout was expected to halt classes midsemester. […] This is the first strike in the system’s 34-year history. The union includes faculty from Bloomsburg,...

The Fabulous Philadelphians are on strike. Friday night, a crowd of about 1,000 sat in Verizon Hall waiting for the orchestra to appear for the scheduled start of the Opening Night Gala. But no Philadelphia Orchestra appeared on stage. Unbeknownst to most in the audience, the 96 musicians and two librarians belonging to American Federation of Musicians Local 77 had decided to go out on strike about an hour before curtain time. Finally, about 20 minutes after the scheduled start, orchestra president Allison B. Vulgamore came out on stage to say that no labor agreement was in place for "one...

The Pennsylvania company that makes marshmallow Peeps as well as Mike and Ike candies has filed a federal lawsuit claiming a workers' strike is illegal. Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 6 workers walked off the job Sept. 7. The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Just Born Quality Confections says that violates a no-strike provision of a contract that expired June 18. The company says the no-strike clause was still in effect until Sept. 18 under a contract extension.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wrote a letter Thursday to the soon-to-be unemployed workers of the Trump Taj Mahal casino, accusing their union of inciting them to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike by Atlantic City's main casino workers union. Icahn told the workers that officials of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union knew that the company had made its final offer, but rejected it anyway, knowing a strike would result.

China strikes and protests up 20% Friday, July 15, 2016 Strikes and protests in China during the first half of 2016 rose almost 20% compared to a year earlier as an early boom in construction-sector unrest gave way to sustained growth in collective action by workers in transportation, the Financial Times reports. In June, China saw 169 strikes nationwide, down about 5% year on year, according to figures provided by China Labour Bulletin’s strike map. But it saw a total of 1,456 strikes and protests as of end-June, up 19% from the first half of 2015, according to the Financial...

Baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants, airplane cleaners, and other workers at Philadelphia International Airport voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to walk off their jobs in protest during the Democratic National Convention this month, according to a union that wants to organize them. The workers are seeking better scheduling, clarity on sick pay, a more predictable disciplinary system, and to be able to unionize. The vote, which took place at the airport, was 461-5 in favor of striking out of 500 on shift Tuesday participating. The workers, who number about 1,000, work for subcontractors hired by various airlines.

PARIS — Fuel shortages, cancelled flights, disrupted trains: France is on strike yet again. The stakes get higher each day. The Euro 2016 soccer championship, which will see hundreds of thousands of visitors traveling to France to root for their national soccer teams, is set to start on June 10. At the same time, Paris is dealing with a constant terrorist threat and now record flooding. From afar, it’s easy to see these latest strikes, prompted by a new government attempt at labor reform, as the exclamation of an over-unionized nation stubbornly holding onto protections and privileges that are hardly...

Staff in France's 19 nuclear plants have voted to go on strike on Thursday as part of protests over a labour reform, a CGT union official told Reuters on Wednesday. Industry experts say planned strikes are unlikely to provoke blackouts because of legal limits on strike action in the nuclear industry and France's ability to import power from neighbouring countries.

Pakistan said the United States drone strike that reportedly killed a Taliban leader violated its sovereignty, The Guardian reported . Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in an airstrike on Saturday in Pakistan, CNN confirmed , according to sources within al Qaeda and the Taliban. U.S. officials said the drone strike was authorized by President Obama. But Pakistan said Sunday the U.S. government didn't tell Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of its plans ahead of the strike. “This is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” Sharif told reporters in London, according to The Guardian. The Guardian reported that the American government...

While everyone is talking about the failure of the Doha negotiations, Kuwait has more than made up for OPEC’s failure all on its own. Kuwait’s oil workers walked off the job this weekend, flexing their muscles over a pay dispute. The state-owned Kuwait Oil Company took to Twitter to report the damage done by the workers strike, announcing that oil production fell to 1.1 million barrels per day on Sunday, a catastrophic development considering it normally produces nearly 3 mb/d. Also, Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the state-owned refining company, said that its production of refined products dropped from 930,000 to 520,000...

Bernie Sanders was hit hard last week when the CEO of Verizon called him out on his hypocritical support of employment practices that will make it harder for Bernie’s voter base—Millennials—to earn a living wage. “Feeling the Bern of reality yet, Bernie?” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam asked after the socialist senator accused Verizon of planning to “outsource decent paying jobs” due to “corporate greed”—and then hugged union supporters on the Verizon picket line in Brooklyn, New York. Verizon workers went on strike in Washington, D.C. and nine eastern states last week. It’s notable that New York’s presidential primary is on...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels Airport canceled half its flights on Wednesday as anger mounted over a second day of industrial action by some air traffic controllers hampering a return to normality after last month's suicide bombings. Some 200 of 400 scheduled flights were canceled, an airport spokeswoman said. A later statement said the outlook for Thursday was still unclear. One of Europe's busiest, Brussels airport had reopened 10 days ago at much reduced capacity following the Islamic State attacks on March 22.

36,000 Verizon workers have walked off the job Wednesday after failing to reach a new labor agreement. This is the largest strike in the United States since Verizon workers last walked off the job in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That strike involved 45,000 workers. Most of the striking workers service the company's landline phone business and FiOS broadband network -- not the much larger Verizon Wireless network. They have gone without a contract since August, and their union, the Communication Workers of America, says it is fighting to get Verizon to come to the table...