Managing Employee Participation in Social Movements: The “Free America Walkout” Scheduled for January 20, 2026

At 2:00 pm on January 20, 2026, some employers may find that employees have walked away from their job as part of the “Free American Walkout” organized and supported by many organizations including The Women’s March and the 50501 Movement. Employers may have questions regarding how they can respond to employee participation when there are no specific laws in Florida to protect an employee from political discrimination or retaliation (although often such activity can be tied to protected classes and thereby become protected).

When it comes to employee participation in protests the National Labor Relations Act provides, “Employees shall have the right. . . to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Strikes are included among the concerted activities protected for employees by this section. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of employees, union and non-union, to participate in a legal strike. In NLRB v. Washington Aluminum, the Supreme Court upheld the NLRB’s decision that workers in a non-unionized workplace who walked out because it was too cold were protected under the NLRA and the employer could not fire them. Keep in mind that there are special rules relating to protests for those working in the healthcare industry.

So, employers who have employees walk off, need to think first before automatically terminating an employee that participates in a protest. Aside from checking to ensure that non-exempt employees clocked out before leaving (this is a whole issue in itself) the first step is to ascertain if a focus of the protest is something that the employer can control. When the motivation for political activity is a national political issue that the employer has no control over, such activity will not be protected, and an employee’s discipline for a violation of well-established and neutrally applied policies is legally permissible.

On the other hand, when employees leave work and withhold services as an economic tool to seek change in the specific terms and conditions of their own employment, such activity is protected. For example, several years ago, McDonalds’s employees held a nationwide strike in support of raising the national minimum wage. Although the national minimum wage was part of the reason workers refused to work, and their employers had no control over the national minimum wage, the employees’ own wages and work conditions were an inherent and primary motivation for their participation. Thus, the National Labor Relations Board ascertained that a sufficient nexus existed for a finding that the strike was protected activity and filed complaints against several McDonald’s challenging the disciplinary actions imposed on participating employees.

As with the 2017 “A Day Without Immigrants” and the 2023 National Boycott against Florida’s Immigration Law, the stated purpose of the Free America Walkout includes objecting to the treatment of immigrants. Additional stated reasons for the scheduled walkout are to show support for women’s rights as well as to protest fascism and the policies of the current administration. Information regarding this event is still being released so it is not yet clear if there is a specific reason that can be tied to employment (such as equal pay for women). Right now, it does not appear that there is a sufficient nexus to a specific employment term and therefore it is possible that this is purely a political protest. Even so, it is important to know that any action against an employee may be challenged through a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board. It may be worthwhile to consider options before you learn that any employees are participating, so that you can be consistent in how you respond to participating employees.