STLPR0%
St. Louis aldermen and activists call for May 1 general strike 62%
By Katie Grawitch0%
4/28/2026, 10:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Post Hoc (False Cause), and In-Group Bias, with Ambiguity (Equivocation) as the most egregious example at 25% saturation with 212 hits. Analysis detected 1,640 faulty-reasoning hits from 849 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 57.2% and a BS Rank of 62% (6,530 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 61.20% of the article peer group.
Five St.
Louis Board of Aldermen members and several community groups are calling for a general strike on May 1.
A general strike asks participants to pause all economic activity, including work, school and spending.
Board President Megan Green joined members Daniela Velázquez, Alisha Sonnier, Laura Keys and Rasheen Aldridge in support of the strike.
More than a dozen groups in St.
Louis will hold a rally and march at Aloe Plaza near City Hall at 5:30 p.m.
Friday, including immigrant advocacy groups, abortion-rights organizations, labor unions and student groups.
Iana McAllister with the Missouri Workers Center said the organization aims to “fight for workers over billionaires, defend multiracial democracy and (keep) ICE out of our communities.”
McAllister, a worker at Kaldi’s Coffee involved in efforts to unionize, said the push for unionization is tied to a larger effort to combat wealth inequality and the increased presence of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in St.
Louis.
“We’re seeing authoritarianism in our own backyard,” McAllister said.
“We have to put our power together in order to fight against the billionaires and to fight for the democracy that we deserve.”
The Missouri Workers Center is simultaneously calling for a long-term boycott of Kaldi’s Coffee, Starbucks, Amazon and Target for anti-labor business practices.
The boycott also calls out Amazon, Target, Enterprise Car Sales and the St.
Louis Police Board of Commissioners for alleged ties to ICE.
Enterprise has yet to comment on any ties to ICE.
The Missouri Workers Center held a rally against increased ICE presence in St.
Louis in January and called for a general strike after federal agents fatally shot Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Organizers marched to Enterprise Center to demand that the company cease renting cars to ICE agents.
The National Catholic Reporter reported in October that Enterprise Car Sales had two contracts with the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, but neither involved ICE.
Velázquez was the first to support the general strike.
She said she joined the effort to support her constituents across a range of issues.
“Our money is going to things that people don't want,” said Velázquez, who represents Ward 6.
“I live in a progressive, liberal ward, and I know that many of the things happening on the federal level and on the state level, like the income tax, state control, the police department, are not things that the people who I represent are in favor (of).”
Velázquez said her constituents have mentioned several issues of concern: the war with Iran, ICE presence and a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Missouri sales taxes to permanently eliminate state income tax.
Sonnier said she joined in support of the working-class people in Ward 7, even those who cannot leave their work responsibilities behind for a day.
“We know that some of our lowest-wage workers cannot afford to take time off or may not be approved for time off,” Sonnier said.
“Even if you cannot afford to not work or not go to school, there is a place for your voice, and you have influence.”
Coordinating economic disruption
Doug Swanson, who coordinates the University of Missouri-St.
Louis labor studies program, said strikes and other forms of political resistance have become more peaceful since the National Labor Relations Act was passed to protect workers in 1935.
“There was a time when we had a lot of violence in the streets — that’s not what we’re seeing these days,” Swanson said.
“By and large, when you look at the hundreds of thousands of people who show up, most of them are peaceful and respectful.
I urge everybody not to overreact.”
Swanson said general strikes were more common in the early 20th century, until an amendment to the National Labor Relations Act in 1947 prohibited “sympathy strikes” in solidarity with other movements.
“We haven't had a general strike probably since the late '40s,” Swanson said.
“The original intent for general strikes was to disrupt, in this case, the city of St.
Louis, such that the power brokers would say, ‘OK, what's happening isn't working.’"
General strikes have historically aimed to bring economic activity in a city or metro area to a grinding halt.
But Swanson said general strikes can be difficult to coordinate effectively when each participant has different goals.
“The call for a general strike can become muddied, because a general strike means a lot of different factions of our community are involved, and each of those factions may have a different outcome that they want,” Swanson said.
Since employers can now legally fire workers participating in a general strike, Swanson said a successful effort is any disruption significant enough to capture the attention of decision-makers.
“Successful or not, I don't think it's the end of this kind of desire to look for an alternative,” Swanson said.
"If you look at the number of protests in the streets over the last few years compared to, say, the first 10 years of this century, there's a lot of evidence that there's a lot of discontent.”
Analysis
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