Won’t that just drive business to the city-owned stores? Sounds like he’s trying to help!

Tldr: They’re still being paid until November because they live in Denmark and they actually have worker protection laws there. So it’s definitely silly that they’re still coming in and working, but they’re definitely not a “slave”.

The “st” is implied, it’s just one of those things you have to get used to. Like reading prices here, it looks like “$25”, but you would read it as “twenty-five dollars.” No one says “it costs dollar-sign twenty five.”

Don’t they believe in democracy? Or do prefer this undemocratic hostage situation that hands the republicans power repeatedly?

It’s the second one. They all ultimately get paid by the same people, so that’s who’s interests they’re actually looking out for.