Online publisher Medium has told its employees that they are free to take Friday off to participate in a nationwide immigration strike.
Medium’s CEO, Tony Stubblebine, said in a series of messages in the company’s general Slack channel that he had “started the week in my own head and heart” over the situation in Minneapolis. Protests have broken out in the state after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“But also it gives me hope to see people across the country stand up and push back,” he said in the messages, which he cross-posted on Threads on Thursday. He added that he wanted to support his employees’ participation in the Friday strike.
Stubblebine did not mandate his staff to attend the strike or take time off from work, saying they were free to take as much time off on Friday as they wished. Medium is a publishing company based in San Francisco.
“Sometimes it feels awkward to navigate being both on-mission and on-money,” he wrote, but added, “our business thrives when the country thrives.”
Stubblebine said that, in addition to letting his employees attend the strike, Medium would publish strike-related content in its newsletter on Friday, such as “Survival Guide To Police Encounters During Protests in Staff Picks.”
Activists, unions, and some celebrities have called for a nationwide strike on Friday to protest the shootings. They are encouraging Americans to have a blackout day on January 30, with no work, no school, and no shopping.
The strike calls for the removal of ICE officers from cities nationwide. Celebrities like Pedro Pascal, Hannah Einbinder, Ariana Grande, and Jamie Lee Curtis have shared information about the strike on their social media accounts.
Other executives have also spoken out against ICE. A group of more than 60 executives of Minnesota-based companies, including Target, Cargill, and General Mills, called for peace and de-escalation in an open letter on Sunday.
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