community groups also participated, including the Chinese Progressive Association and "the one major extension of the strike, through the participation of the day laborers' organization in organizing among Spanish-speaking immigrants" working class in San Francisco's Mission District, where the strike was most successful. In the United Kingdom, there were fare strikes against First Great Western in January 2007 and January 2008. In Montreal, striking students in 2005 often used the subway as a means of transportation during demonstrations. As a group, the demonstration would enter the subway without paying, usually while chanting "Métro populaire." In New York City, Occupy Wall Street activists chained and taped open service gates and turnstiles to the subway system to protest "escalating service cuts, fare hikes, racist policing, assaults on transit workers' working conditions and livelihoods — and the profiteering of the super-rich by way of a system they've rigged in their favor" on March 28, 2012. In Grand Rapids, in 2016, a coalition of community activists boarded numerous city buses and refused to pay; part of a "Day of Action" against the Interurban Transit Partnership (ITP), which culminated in a sit-in aimed at disrupting the scheduled ITP board meeting later that same day. The activists were protesting the board's refusal to negotiate a contract settlement with the workers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 836, violations of those workers' First Amendment rights, a 16% fare hike, and a raise given to CEO, Peter Varga, while these perceived attacks on workers and riders were taking place. This was the first fare strike in Michigan history. See also Protest Demonstration (people) Social action Notes External links San Francisco transit fight Article from Z Magazine on the first day of the San Francisco fare strike by Tom Wetzel Civil disobedience Public transport fare collection Strikes (protest)