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The one-day
protest, which is being held in conjunction with International
Women's Day, is intended to draw attention to the plight of
women in the workplace who on average are paid less than men.
The protest is already affecting dozens of schools, which are
heavily staffed by women. The strike organizers include some of
the planners of the Jan. 21 women's march on Washington and
other U.S. cities.
In Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.,
Superintendent of Schools Alvin Crawley said classes for the
entire district, which serves more than 15,000 students, would
be canceled on Wednesday after 300 teachers and other staff
members asked to have the day off.
"The decision is based solely on our ability to provide
sufficient staff to cover all our classrooms, and the impact of
high staff absenteeism on student safety and delivery of
instruction," Crawley said in an announcement.
Also canceling classes for the day are Chapel Hill-Carrboro City
Schools in North Carolina, where officials anticipated that 400
to 2,000 staffers would not show up for work. The district,
which encompasses 21 schools, said absences on a typical day
number around 100 staffers, or 5 percent of its workforce.
The school district stressed that the decision to close was
based on student safety and was not meant as a political
statement.
(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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