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About 500 groups of workers in the United States have organized an economic crisis that calls for “no schooling, no work, or shopping” to commemorate May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day.
The events, organized as part of a demonstration called May Day Strong, were inspired by the economic boycott following the immigration crisis in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January.
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The situation is huge but I am trying to challenge government policies that prioritize the rich over working people.
May Day Strong has a number of demands, including “rich taxes” and getting rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – a call that comes as Republicans vote on Wednesday on a potential budget deal. donate money to the organization Department of Homeland Security.
It also wants to end war and “develop democracy”, according to the group’s statement.
Although the tent is spacious, the organizers emphasized that this is a result of the many problems that the US workers are facing.
“Since Inauguration Day, billions of companies and Project 2025 have been attacking our freedoms and liberties, including targeting workers based on how we look, the language we speak, or the work we do, undermining our First Amendment rights and our association,” New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Brendan Griffith said in a statement to Al Jaze. Project 2025 is a follow-up plan launched by the Heritage Foundation before the 2025 presidential election and aimed at reforming the United States government and consolidating leadership, among other things.
May Day Strong said the overall goal of her rallies was to put “more than a billion workers out of business”, and she followed up with economic protests in several cities, including Los Angeles, Boston, and Atlanta.
Have worker protections changed under Trump?
The push for more protections for workers comes after a series of actions in the past year led by US President Donald Trump that have stripped many workers of their protections, including government workers.
Earlier this year, state officials also placed thousands of people on “at-will” status, making it difficult for civil servants to appeal their dismissals.
Trump also cut staff at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), including Gwynne Wilcox, who was nominated by former presidential candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat.
In March 2025, the Supreme Court refused to intervene. By reducing the workforce, the NLRB, which is the federal body where workers complain about employers to investigate unfair labor practices, is doing less work.
Trump has also rolled back policies that protect workers from unsafe AI developments that harm workers. Biden’s executive order required the Department of Labor to ensure that employers are transparent about their use of AI, that AI supports workers and accomplish their work, and that resources are provided to help workers improve skills during AI-related job changes.
A report from Goldman Sachs published earlier this month found that AI has eliminated about 16,000 jobs per month in the past year.
Trump also rolled back protections aimed at preventing discrimination in the workplace, including weakening the enforcement of employer standards, and addressing racial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A giant box Objectives was one such company to change its DEI programs, leading to a boycott in 2025. Companies, including Amazon and Goldman Sachs, have also scaled back DEI efforts.
The The White House also reported the offer preferences based on race and/or gender.
There have also been cuts to safety standards at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency under the Department of Labor. Among them was the order to end the implementation of new safety regulations, including mandatory thermal protection procedures for workers that include mandatory breaks and water.
In April, the Trump administration decided to cut $47m to the agency for the 2027 fiscal year, which begins in October. Although the White House can provide the budget, Congress ultimately decides the money.
But OSHA’s erosion is nothing new. Since the group began issuing its report 35 years ago, the union’s budget has been cut by 10 percent, 26 percent of total workers, and the number of inspectors has dropped by 16 percent, according to the AFL-CIO’s Death on the Job report (PDF) published earlier this week.
On wages, in the early days of the Biden administration, the White House failed to deliver on a promise to raise the federal minimum wage.
This was blocked by the Democrat who voted not to raise the wage – Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who joined the Republicans against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
While Mr. Biden was able to raise the federal minimum wage for government contractors, Mr. Trump repealed it in 2025.
While states have minimum wages, the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, and remains at $7.25 an hour. The increase, which took place in the first few months of the Obama administration, was done a few years earlier, in 2007, by Congress, when the Democrats had a majority in the House and the Senate.
What are the things that are happening today?
These meetings have their own size and scope. In North Carolina, teachers are demanding more funding for public schools, with more than a dozen school districts in the state all striking out.
In New Orleans, nurses are looking for better pay and better contracts, as are students at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
In New York, meetings called on e-commerce giant Amazon to drop its contracts with ICE. ICE uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud storage and in September, ICE bought $25m in cloud services from Amazon.
On Friday afternoon, hundreds of workers representing 70 groups gathered in Washington Square Park in New York. The crowd was filled with workers holding placards calling for billions in taxes and others demanding a ‘living wage’.
Guadalupe Sosa, a street vendor who represents the street vendor union, was one of the protesters on Friday.
“Like my parents, thousands of other refugees moved here. And we are the workers who wake up every morning and make sure the city runs. We are the workers who have been neglected for years,” he told Al Jazeera.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also spoke at the rally, saying, “I would not be standing before you as mayor of our city without the support of working people.”
“There are more than 3,000 events planned in more than 40 cities, where unions, associations, local organizations, and other activists are mobilizing with workers across the country to oppose policies, actions, and measures that seek to weaken working families, to make their voices heard, to suppress their rights, and to intimidate them into submission,” Jennifer General Abruz told the National Board of Labor. Jazeera.
We show our strength and work together for a common cause.
What is the history of May Day?
The history of May Day, or International Workers’ Day, began in the late 1800s, when US workers began to strike for eight hours. The biggest shows were in Chicago.
The conflict escalated when a workers’ meeting turned violent in 1886. A bomb was thrown at the police, and in retaliation, the police shot people who went to Haymarket Square, which later became known as the Haymarket Affair.
Trade unions celebrate this day in solidarity with workers who are pushing for change at work.
The US does not recognize May Day as an official holiday, and instead lists Labor Day, which is in September, as a day to celebrate the US working class.
