Heather Curtis
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON – Thursday, immigrants walked out on work to show what a day without them would be like. On Wednesday, March 8th, women will be doing the same thing.

The Women’s Strike is still in the planning stages, so it’s not clear how it will work or who will participate, but Andy Challenger with the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said if it’s as big as the women’s marches the day after President Donald Trump’s Inauguration, it could have a big impact on the workforce that day.

“46.8 percent of the workforce today is made up of women. If nearly half the country walks out on their jobs, companies are not going to be able to stay open for the day, particularly smaller companies that might not have staff to replace those employees,” Challenger said.

There are some protections for employees when they’re striking in certain situations like wage disputes, but Challenger doesn’t know if, as a collective group, women across the country would be entitled to these protections. If any women did get fired, he thinks it would become a national issue and something that would be taken to court.

While women’s marches around the country attracted millions of men, women and children, this strike may be a more difficult sell. The women’s marches were on a Saturday when most people are off from work. With marches around the country, many didn’t need to travel far to participate.

“But for people to give up their wages for the day or potentially even risk being fired would be a much larger sacrifice, and so, in effect, would have a larger impact as a strike,” said Challenger.

WMAL didn’t get a response when we reached out to OPM to see how the federal workforce could be affected by the strike and what repercussions there could be for participants.

Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Womens March/Twitter)