Places I would stay away from during a strike are Licey, San Francisco de Macoris, Nagua, Cotui, Los Alcarrizos. These places are notorious for being troublesome spots during strikes.
About a year ago I was leaving for the airport (Santiago) from Cotui and lo and behold we run into a strike in a place called El Pescozon (Cotui). We just weren't going to get through there. My brother who was taking me to the airport knew this little road that would take us around the strike so we went that way. When we got there they were starting to close that road up too with trees, rocks, etc. but it wasn't completely closed up. So we went trough... As we're going through this guy runs and picks up a rock with a clear intention of throwing it at us. My brother then took out his gun and yelled at the guy that if he threw that rock at us he would be dead on the spot. The guy dropped the rock and I actually made it to the airport on time...Good ol' DR...never a dull moment.