As Many as 3,000 Events Anticipated for National May Day Mobilization as Workers, Educators, and Communities Demand “Workers Over Billionaires”
- 50501 Organizers
- 5 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Across the country, May Day protests plan to disrupt business as usual to demand a country that attacks affordability instead of our neighbors.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
On May 1st, workers, students, and families across the United States will refuse business as usual in the next national mobilization planned after No Kings. As many as 3,000 events are anticipated across all 50 states, building on more than 1,300 May Day actions last year.
In Chicago, Illinois, the school district officially made May Day a “civic day of action” with instructional time and field trips to the 1pm rally in that city planned. In Guilford County, North Carolina, the board of education voted to provide teachers the option of attending the May Day rally to pressure legislators for much needed resources for the school district. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, more than 160 actions are planned statewide and the state will launch its Truth Commission aimed at documenting human rights violations by ICE agents. In Detroit, Michigan, the City Council passed a resolution declaring May 1, 2026 as May Day, recognizing it as a day to celebrate the power, dignity, and solidarity of working people. In Durham, North Carolina, the Board of Education voted to make May 1 a teacher workday, enabling teachers to attend the rally. Missourians are coming together across the Show-Me state to: protest corporate-backed lawmakers ignoring the will of voters by gutting paid sick days and passing an Everything Tax on working families, grow the movement of service industry workers’ efforts to unionize, halt AI data center developments, and demand corporations like Amazon and Enterprise, headquartered in St. Louis, cut ties with ICE.
Across the country, more than a dozen cities have announced plans for “No Work, No School, No Shopping” modeled off of Minnesota’s day of truth and freedom organized this past January.
May Day Strong is an effort anchored by 500 labor and community organizations making three demands:
Tax the Rich: so our families, not their fortunes, come first
No ICE, No War: no private armies to serve authoritarian power
Expand democracy, not corporate rule
Those demands are backed by the Real Affordability Agenda, a concrete policy blueprint covering housing, wages, health care, education, and worker power with over 100 bills to tax the ultra-rich to fund schools and critical services being presented in state houses across the country.
Flagship events include:
Chicago, IL: 1pm CST Rally and March and additional events at chicagomayday.org
More events can be found at maydaystrong.org
“We are organizing for a country that puts workers over billionaires,” said Neidi Dominguez, Executive Director of Organized Power in Numbers. “We want our tax dollars going to good jobs, schools, and housing, not to sending federal agents into our cities to attack our neighbors. We want a government that puts more into community benefits and less into billionaire bank accounts. We are for one job being enough to pay the bills, for housing people can afford, and for public schools and health care that work for working families, not piggy banks for the ultra-rich to steal from.”
“This administration has pushed hundreds of thousands of Black women out of the workforce, reversed civil rights, and is seeking to end democracy as we know it.. We are who educate children, make our communities safer, and make this country run. And when billionaires aren’t made to pay what they owe, it hurts everyone,” said Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union. “Not taxing the ultra-rich leaves schools without teachers, libraries without books, unsafe bridges, shuttered hospitals, and the rest of us paying more. We want a different future where students and communities have what they need. It’s going to take all of us organizing together to make that happen.”
“Our union was founded in the struggle for the 8 hour day and the ensuing events that led to the creation of May Day, a time when workers all over the world come together to celebrate the working class and to continue our fight for a better world. Now, more than any time in my life, we need to remember the generations of brave workers who led these historical struggles and come together this May Day to demand a better future for our children,” said Jimmy Williams Jr., General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
“The American people are done grinding to get by while our tax dollars fund wars abroad and concentration camps at home,” said Rebecca Winter, 50501 Spokesperson and Executive Director of Mass 50501. “We pay more for everything while those in power cash in. On May 1, we hit back with our wallets — no work, no school, no shopping. We the People are the economy, and we decide when it stops.”
“In January in Minnesota this year we experienced the power when community and workers act together to defend our rights and shared values. This May Day is a chance for us locally, and nationally to build on those lessons: we are ready to fight to protect our families and our cities from the billionaire agenda of division and hate,” said Greg Nammacher, President of SEIU Local 26.
"In a life-threatening emergency, Mayday is a distress call so it’s fitting that this May Day, Patriotic Millionaires and working Americans have joined together to sound the alarm. Trillion dollar companies pay starvation wages and American taxpayers subsidize overpaid CEOs who consider human exploitation a smart business model. Enough! Southern plantation owners thought they were good business people too. If we’re handing out grades this May Day, America's C-Suite gets an F. And most lawmakers skipped the class," said Erica Payne, Founder and President of Patriotic Millionaires.
"May Day is a moment of reckoning. Immigrant communities — from farmworkers in our fields to nurses in our hospitals, from refugees fleeing war to families who have built their lives here for generations — are under siege. The same government that is spending billions on a needless war in Iran, raining down suffering on innocent people abroad, is the same government turning ICE loose on our neighborhoods, ripping parents from their children, and gutting healthcare and food assistance that working families depend on to survive. They want us afraid. They want us divided. But on May 1, we refuse. Workers and immigrants — documented and undocumented, native-born and newly arrived — will stand together in the streets because we know the truth: there is no workers' rights without immigrant rights, and there is no justice for working people here while our tax dollars fund devastation abroad. On May Day, we will come together as one and demonstrate that collective action is our power,” said Masih Fouladi, Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center.
“Trump’s war on our universities is a direct attack on democracy itself. This May Day, students, faculty, and staff are marching together in a growing nationwide coalition—rallying and organizing to save higher education so we can save our democracy. We are building a massive wave of resistance to demand a system that serves the public good: affordable, accessible, and committed to protecting scientific research, free speech, and every student’s right to learn free from political interference. We will not stop until we win the higher education system—and the democracy—we all deserve,” said Todd Wolfson, President of the American Association of University Professors.
“We draw strength, inspiration, and direction from our shared history including the legacy of May Day. We are proud to continue to honor that history by building power and being in direct action with our allies focused on our shared interests,” said Willy Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 23.
"On May Day, we rise because worker justice is immigrant justice. It's been 40 years since the last time this nation recognized the contributions of immigrants by approving a pathway to citizenship. And it's been 20 years since La Gran Marcha — when millions of people took to the streets to reject exclusion, racism, and criminalization of immigrant communities — and we are still facing the same forces, especially under the Trump Administration. We organize because our labor builds this country, our communities sustain it, and our dignity is non-negotiable," said Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA).
“Our communities have had it with billionaires refusing to pay what they owe and corporations powering and profiting off ICE and the authoritarian machine,” said Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director of PowerSwitch Action. “On May Day, working people in cities across the country are flexing our power in numbers to halt the drive towards autocracy and forge a multiracial feminist democracy where all of us can thrive.”
“Federal workers march on May Day because both our personal interests and the jobs we are meant to perform are opposed to the billionaire agenda. A self-serving handful of the world’s most powerful bosses may control the government for now, but every part of government that has ever worked for regular people did so because of us. Yes, we march to ensure that our democracy serves the people again, but also to build a movement for reconstructing a better government than ever before,” said Chris Dols, Executive Director of the Federal Unionists Network.
“On May Day, workers across the globe stand together to show that we have the power — not the billionaire class. We can and will shut it down to secure prosperity for all working people,” said Faye Guenther, President of UFCW Local 3000.
"Working people are living on the edge and struggling to make ends meet. Everything is too expensive—we work harder while our pay stagnates and billionaire CEOs get richer off our stolen wages,” said Braxton Winston, President of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO. "Now is the time to build coalitions between unorganized workers, unions, and community members for mass actions to disrupt the well-organized, joint efforts of corporations and the White House to exploit American workers. The actions we take on International Workers Day are about building the political, social, community, and labor coalitions needed to disrupt the status quo. The power we flex this May Day will fuel our unwavering commitment to building a bigger, more effective, unified labor movement to win victories for working families. Hard work deserves respect, and every worker deserves a union!"
"This May Day is a powerful opportunity for people across the country to flex their power against greedy corporations, racists, and fascists who are harming our communities, driving prices up, and scapegoating our neighbors. May Day is a chance to say enough is enough -not just with our words, but with bodies and our wallets. We will withhold our dollars, our labor, and our attention and we will continue to organize until we defeat authoritarianism and deliver a government of care, community, and prosperity for everyone,” said Christina Livingston, Executive Director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.
“Houston workers are standing up for a worker-centered vision of America that upholds our democracy and prioritizes workers thriving, not just surviving. We are 60,000 union members across 75 labor unions in the Gulf Coast Area ready to build worker power this May Day. We’ll rally so that our tax dollars are reinvested into our communities for reliable infrastructure, strong public schools, and disaster readiness. That’s a far better use than paying for ICE to occupy our cities or to fund wars abroad,” said Hany Khalil, Executive Director of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
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