As the weekend fell upon the planet Mars the general strike call by Laura Whiting once more forced the so-called movers and shakers to abandon their leisure time and spend the days of rest in their towering high rise offices. What had first been taken as a joke by the top executives of the corporations — the thought that the greenies would actually respond to her ridiculous request — gradually changed into ever-increasing alarm that maybe they really would. Though the big three, acting on the theory that to fail to acknowledge something was to mitigate its existence, remained mostly mute on the subject of the general strike, MarsGroup naturally did not. On every channel, on every web site, in every news publication, the story of Laura Whiting's latest speech and the ramifications of it were the top subject. Interviews with blue-collar workers, all of them vowing to honor her request and asking that others do the same, were printed and aired in every news update. Calculations, all of them made by Martian born auditors and accountants, speculating on just how much revenue a five day shutdown of Martian productivity would cost the corporations were printed in exacting detail and downloaded millions of times over. Hard copies of these figures were printed out and posted on union bulletin boards throughout the planet; they were emailed back and forth from person to person so often that they flooded the system and forced it to a near crawl.
To make matters worse, Laura Whiting expanded her normal speech schedule of twice a week and began to make appearances every night. She would repeat the figures compiled by the accountants and repeat her requests for all Martian workers employed by an Earthling corporation to participate. As always, Whiting's speeches were the highest rated broadcasts of all time and the powers that be realized that the Martians were not watching them because they found them amusing.
In an attempt to head off the strike the corporate heads called a press conference to address the planet on Sunday night. In doing so they took the unusual step of asking for this press conference to be aired on MarsGroup in addition to the normal big three broadcast stations. MarsGroup, more out of a sense of sensationalism than anything else, quickly agreed and sent reporters to the Agricorp building, where the conference was being staged.
This conference took place in the large briefing room on the 300th floor where corporate training was usually held, a locale with spectacular views of the city and the wastelands in all directions. Representing the corporations were William Smith who, as the titular head of corporate interests on Mars had been elected as the spokesperson in this matter. With him were the heads of more than thirty other corporations that relied on Martian productivity for profits, everything from transportation to manufacturing to mining to food producers that competed with Agricorp itself. This group of CEOs stood as a unified force against the rebellion that was sweeping their breadbasket. Dressed in their finest, most expensive business suits they stood shoulder to shoulder, an impressive gathering for a single purpose.
"We, the leaders of the various business interests that operate on this planet," said Smith in a carefully written speech, "are sympathetic to the problems that are occurring of late in the Martian cities. We have denounced the overzealous tactics displayed by federal officials in regards to indiscriminate gunfire and we are appalled by the deaths that have occurred so far. However, we, the corporations, are not to blame for this. We are only here to provide goods and services to the people of WestHem and to provide jobs for the people of Mars. We must take a firm stance against anyone who threatens our productivity. So, with that in mind, let me make it perfectly clear to the people of Mars who are considering partaking in this illegal and subversive action tomorrow. Anyone who fails to show up for work tomorrow will be dismissed from their duties and will go into our hiring computer as unfit prospects for future consideration. This decree will be enforced uniformly, for both skilled and unskilled workers, for both management positions and general workforce. In short, if you strike, you will be fired and barred from future employment with any corporation represented here for the rest of your life. You will lose all health and lawsuit insurance and other benefits that come with employment. This decree applies not only to Agricorp, which I myself speak for, but any corporation that is represented here today. We are firm and committed to this action so I will advise you all to think very carefully before you decide not to show up for work in the morning. Production on this planet is vital to the continuation of WestHem and it will go on. Must I be forced to remind you that there is a better than twenty-five percent unemployment rate on Mars? If the members of the current working class decide to throw their jobs away in this ridiculous work action requested by Governor Whiting, I'm sure that there are millions of unemployed that would be perfectly willing to join the ranks of the employed to replace you."
The press conference went on for another hour, though mostly it was the other corporate heads spouting variations of Smith's words. The media computers that monitored such things reported that seventy-four percent of Martian viewers had tuned in to watch the conference initially but that the number had dwindled to less than ten percent by the time it ended. Smith and his acquaintances were unsure how to interpret this data but eventually they managed to convince themselves that it was good news. They figured that they had made their point quite nicely to the ignorant greenies and congratulated each other on outthinking that bitch Whiting.
8:00 AM Monday morning dawned first in the cities of Libby and Ore City, which were located in the easternmost populated time zone. Libby was an agricultural city along the equator, the center of the third largest expanse of greenhouse complexes on the planet. Ore City was a mining and manufacturing city located 2100 kilometers due north. As the workday began in these places less than two percent of the total workforce showed up for their jobs. The public transportation trains ran through their Monday morning routes with hardly any passengers on them. The teaming high-rise office buildings of their downtowns were virtually deserted of Martian workers. The steel processing plants and the mines remained empty and non-productive. The greenhouses went unworked, their equipment going without maintenance.
Smith and his cohorts listened to reports in disbelief as the red planet turned slowly on its axis, bringing the next set of Martian cities towards the 8:00 hour. Never, in their wildest dreams, in their worst nightmares did they imagine that so many people would actually put their jobs at risk like that. Their disbelief grew as the scene was repeated every hour as more cities moved themselves into the workday and the vast majority of the Martian workers were not there to help run it. In all it was estimated that more than ninety-six percent of the total Martian workforce that were employed by Earth-based corporations elected to honor the general strike. Of the four percent that did show up, most of them were simply sent home again since their various occupations could not run without the other workers.
On this Monday no food was picked or tended or processed or packed for shipping on the planet Mars. No boxes were loaded onto trains for the trip to the spaceports and no ships already loaded took off for Triad for distribution. No iron ore was pulled from the ground or processed into steel. No bartenders showed up to work in corporate pubs and no checkers or clerks showed up to sell things in corporate owned grocery or supply stores. Even the big three media conglomerates themselves were forced to virtually shut down much of their Martian operations as their cameramen and computer technicians — men and women that they had thought loyal despite their heritage — abandoned their equipment and went home. Mars and nearly everything on it ground to a halt, strangling profits for the day and, despite the savings in salary outlay enjoyed by the lack of workers to pay, cost every Earth-based corporation, large and small, billions of dollars.