Events to celebrate May 1 — International Workers Day — are being held around the country, from strikes by e-hail drivers in several cities, to actions to win support for union contract fights and protests for the rights of immigrant workers.
These actions will attract workers and youth looking for ways to build unions and resist the impact of today’s deepening capitalist crisis.
A number of actions are being held in the Washington, D.C., area. UNITE HERE Local 25 has called a rally at McPherson Square at 4.30 p.m. to win support for its fight for a contract. The Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO urges unionists to “come out on May Day to show your solidarity with hotel workers fighting for the wages, benefits and dignity they deserve.” Local 25 organizes 7,500 workers in hotels and casinos across the D.C. metro area.
Casa de Maryland is holding a protest to demand rights for immigrant workers at Washington’s Union Station at 11:30 a.m. The action will also honor the six construction workers who died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore.
The annual construction workers’ “hard hat” memorial Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City will take place May 1 this year. The union-organized event commemorates the construction workers killed or injured on the job over the last year. The percentage of construction workers in New York who are undocumented immigrants has soared in recent years, as has the percentage of nonunion contractors.
In San Francisco, members of Service Employees International Union Local 87, which organizes janitors and hotel workers, will march to press their fight for a new contract May 1 at 2 p.m. from 415 Mission Street.
Strikes and rallies are being organized by Justice for App Workers, a coalition of 130,000 e-hail drivers across the East Coast and Midwest.
“We’re sick of working 80 hours/week just to make ends meet,” the organization’s website says, as well as “worrying about being deactivated with the click of a button.” For cities and times of these actions visit https://justiceforappworkers.org/may-day-strike/.
Elsewhere, as in previous years, actions will be held in several cities — from Los Angeles to Milwaukee to New York — to press for amnesty and rights for immigrant workers in the U.S., a question that’s crucial to unifying the working class and strengthening the labor movement. For those working without papers that the government considers adequate, another demand is they be able to get driver’s licenses.
In the U.S., May Day was first celebrated in 1886, when working people and labor unions launched a fight for the eight-hour day. That demand still resonates for millions here and worldwide who face the bosses’ drive to lengthen the workday and workweek with intolerable schedules. In 2006 and 2007 millions of workers took to the streets to demand rights for immigrant workers.