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Millions Participatie in Over 5,000 “Workers Over Billionaires” Actions Nationwide, Most Widespread May Day in U.S. History

Rising Costs and Rising Authoritarianism Drove Participation Across Red, Blue, and Purple states, with Strikes, Walkouts, and Shutdowns Reflecting a Broad Expansion Beyond Traditional Protest Turnout

Striking Healthcare Workers in New Orleans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2026

Contact: [email protected] & [email protected]


Chicago, Illinois — Rising costs of living drove workers across the country to take part in May Day actions, the most widespread May 1st mobilizations in U.S. history with more than 5,000 events, including strikes, walkouts, boycotts, and mass demonstrations.


Building on the No Kings protests and in the wake of the Trump-appointed Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, more than 570 organizations and thousands of events turned May Day into a mass mobilization against the Trump agenda as part of May Day Strong’s “Workers Over Billionaires” day of action with three central demands:


  1. Tax the rich: Our families before their fortunes

  2. No ICE. No War

  3. Expand Democracy, Not Corporate Power: Hands off Our Votes.


The more than 5,000 actions took place nationwide, with participation extending beyond those physically in the streets to include workers who stayed home, students who walked out, and consumers who opted not to spend as they answered the “No work, no school, no shopping” call to action.


Events spanned sectors and regions, including educators mobilizing across North Carolina, nurses on strike in New Orleans, and coordinated actions by Black, brown, working class and immigrant students and workers in cities such as San Francisco, Durham, New York, and Chicago, where thousands of students attended official field trips to historic Operation PUSH and other locations focused on voting rights and civic education.


The actions were led and attended by a broad cross-section of workers, including Black, brown, and immigrant communities, across red and blue states. Demonstrators staged die-ins, shut down intersections, and disrupted airport access, reflecting a level of coordination that extended beyond traditional protest activity.


In addition to those who marched, the day also included school-based walkouts and walk-ins, workplace disruptions, and consumer boycotts. And was preceded by mayors from Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, Seattle, and other cities signing a “Haymarket Declaration” to advance workers rights.


The actions underscored cost-of-living pressures as a unifying factor, with participants pointing to rising housing, food, and healthcare costs, alongside broader concerns about government spending priorities, as drivers of mobilization.


A map and more details are available at maydaystrong.org. 


May Day Strong will host a “What’s Next” call this coming Tuesday, May 5th, at 8 p.m. ET

The day’s top lines and events included:



Quotes available below


“The Supreme Court interpreted the law in bad faith at the behest of the Epstein class to disenfranchise millions of Americans,” said 50501 National Press Coordinator Hunter Dunn. “It has never been clearer that it is We the Working People of this country versus the billionaires. On May 1st, we are standing up against corruption, against the masked men kidnapping our neighbors, and for our rights.”


"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).


“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 invests more in community benefits and less in 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.”


“We are the ones 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. 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,” 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.” 


“May Day is our day to expose greedy corporations and politicians who are profiting off of our pain,” said People’s Action Executive Director Sulma Arias. “During the ‘No Kings’ demonstrations, we showed what we’re against. May Day is the day we’re making clear what we are fighting for: We are for affordable housing for low-income people. We are for free health care for all. We are for utility laws that ensure every home stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer at costs that a person on a fixed income can afford. We are for the right to a fair and equal vote for Americans from every race and in every state. May Day is our day to assert and defend our rights.”


"We need to stay focused on the corporations driving, profiting from, and enabling the fascist attacks on our communities. We need to make sure their executives understand they won't have peace if we don't have peace. We have to directly challenge corporations like Target, Hilton, and Palantir and show them that fascism isn't just bad for democracy, it's also bad for business,"

said Saqib Bhatti, Executive Director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy.

"Across this country—from the fields of California to classrooms in Denver, from kitchens in Queens to loading docks in Atlanta—working people are done waiting. We are organizing, we are speaking out, and we are using our collective power, legally and peacefully, to demand change. This May Day, NEA’s three million members are standing shoulder to shoulder with workers, immigrant families, students, parents, and our neighbors. We’re not asking for stronger, safer, more dignified communities—we’re demanding them. Because let’s be clear: too much is on the line to sit back. When those at the top rig the system — when they ignore our students, our families, and our futures — we don’t stay quiet. We act. We will march. We will hold teach-ins. We will take collective action. Not as a gesture, but as a force,” said Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association.


“From the threat of AI to union-busting by corporate CEOs, the fight for workers over billionaires has never been more urgent than it is today,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “Workers Memorial Day and May Day have long been solemn ones for the labor movement when we honor those who came before us, fought and died for the rights we have today, and recommit ourselves to work ahead. Labor’s cry on International Workers’ Day—and every day—is ‘solidarity forever,’ and we are proud to be in coalition with our allies to build power together.”


“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.


“May Day has its roots in the fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, and a better life – and a reminder that real change happens when working people act together,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Today, as families face rising costs and economic uncertainty, that fight is as urgent as ever. Too often, decisions that shape our paychecks, our schools, and the cost of everyday life are driven by those at the top, instead of the people doing the work. That includes attacks on immigrant workers who are an essential part of our workplaces and communities. That’s why May Day isn’t just about showing up in the streets. It’s about using our power in every way it counts. At the ballot box, we decide who makes the rules and whose voices are heard. And through our collective voice - how we engage, where we spend, and how we hold leaders and corporations accountable – we push for an economy that works for all. Worker power is how we come together. Civic action is how we turn that power into real change.”


“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 businesspeople, 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.


“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 our 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.


“May Day is a chance for us to recognize our movement of workers taking on the billionaires — in Texas and across the world,” said Leonard Aguilar, Texas AFL-CIO President. “We have the power to change our state and country for the better — if we come together and fight for what we deserve. This May Day, we recommit to fighting for a future where one job is enough to make ends meet, where Texans can go to the doctor without worrying about the bill they’re going to get, where workers can afford to rent or buy a home, and where our schools are fully funded.”


"May Day is about reclaiming our power as a working class. From Detroit to the South, from the factory to the campus, UAW members are mobilizing to take back our time, take back our lives, and take back May Day as a holiday for workers everywhere. The billionaire class wants to keep us divided. On May Day, we show our unity as the working class,” said Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW).


50501 is a non-violent, grassroots movement that organizes mass protests and mutual aid to defend democracy against fascism. For more information about 50501, visit our website at fiftyfifty.one.


Workers Over Billionaires is a National Day of Action organized by members of the May Day Strong Coalition, where students, families, and workers will rally, march, and take action to demand that the government tax the rich, abolish ICE, stop the war on Iran, and expand democracy instead of corporate rule. For more information about Workers Over Billionaires, or to find the action nearest you, go to maydaystrong.org. 


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