Traditionally, parades, picnics, and barbeques happen on Labor Day, but this year will be significant for the more than 600 protests that will happen from one end of the country to the other.
The AFL-CIO is backing events sponsored by labor federations in many cities and by coalitions like May Day Strong, Indivisible, the organizers of No Kings Day, and many other formations. Federation President Liz Shuler will be where the action is in Los Angeles and Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten will join Chicago Federation of Labor President Rob Reiter as headliners in the Windy City.
New York City will host a parade on Sept. 6. Los Angeles will have a mix of four protests or parades, with more in the suburbs. The farthest Southeast protest, right now, is in West Palm Beach, Fla. The farthest Northwest is in Seattle, while Maine has several events. Guam is the farthest west, beyond another in Hawaii.
As if those widespread protests aren’t enough, there’s already a ton of actions taking place around the country before we get to Labor Day.
There are ongoing demonstrations in downtown D.C. against President Donald Trump’s military takeover there. And Saturday, Aug. 16, saw big rallies in Illinois and Texas for the Lone Star State’s Democratic legislators who fled the state capitol in Austin to prevent the ruling Republicans from a needed state House quorum to pass their racist gerrymandering scheme.
The GOP in Texas, at Trump’s urging, plans to jam through a hyper-partisan congressional remap to slice and dice districts which now elect Democratic lawmakers of color—all to maintain the Republican congressional U.S. House majority next year.
Even before Labor Day, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network plans an Aug. 28 commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in New York City.
Biggest blowout on Labor Day itself
But the biggest blowout, organizers hope, is going to be on Labor Day itself. Local events can be found at MayDayStrong.org. There is also a toolkit for event hosts and organizers to coordinate their actions. The organizers hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets on No Kings Day back in April.
The key demands at all the protests will be: “stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration, protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people,” plus “fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.”
Marchers will also demand the Trump regime “stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities and invest in people, not wars.”
“We’re going to rock the city,” Chicago Federation of Labor President Rob Reiter predicted at a recent organizing meeting of the No Kings/May Day coalition. “We want tens of thousands of people standing up to the oligarchy Donald Trump stands on.
“We want to communicate the message that this country is taking things back for itself,” he told the 1,000 people on that mass conference call.
“The Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Federation of Labor will rally and march past bad billionaire bosses and demand union, civil, and immigrant rights while demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share,” the May Day Strong posting for the parade from the Haymarket Monument on the North Side says.
People’s World is a sponsor of the Chicago May Day Strong rally.
“Picnics and parades are important,” but they’re not everything, Weingarten told the Chicago organizing meeting. She’ll be at Haymarket on Sept. 1. The Illinois Federation of Labor will also host a parade in West Pullman, near the historic site of the 1893 massive rail workers strike.
“They’re not only lying about what they’re doing but they’re taking away what working families need,” Weingarten said of Trump and his MAGA backers, on and off Capitol Hill. “And for what? To give more money to the billionaires?
“We have a right to the bounty of our country. We have to be out on the streets.”
Economics and workers’ rights will be key themes, and many of the events are headlined #WorkersOverBillionaires. Others will stress specific causes.
Hugo Valdez, of the (Seattle) Martin Luther King County Central Labor Committee said the march there will target Palantier, a federal contractor that “provides sensitive accurate information” the U.S. military and the Israeli military use for drone missile coverage and—in Gaza—strikes on civilians.
“They’re in Seattle’s tech neighborhood and Peter Thiel,” a GOP donor, “owns it. He’s worth $26.2 billion…We want at least 1,000 workers to protest this investment in Israeli war crimes.”
Like other federal workers, Jessica LaPoint, president of Government Employees Council 220, has faced huge Trump cuts. Her council represents Social Security’s workers, including those at its headquarters in Woodlawn, Md., a Baltimore suburb.
“There is a concerted attack” by Trump “on organized labor, and AFGE is at the tip” of the iceberg Trump wants to melt by destroying unions. He recently trashed 30 union contracts covering a million federal workers. Thousands of others, including many at Social Security, retired or took buyouts—which last only until Sept. 30.
“We need the biggest and baddest Labor Day turnout in the history of the country,” says LaPoint.
“The billionaires continue to wage a cruel war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks. This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics,” says the group organizing a demonstration outside of Trump’s golf club in Pine Hill, N.J.
“We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. The billionaire’s time is up.”
“The billionaires continue to wage a cruel war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks,” say event organizers in West Palm Beach, Fla. “This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over corporate politics.
The Schools Our Students Deserve Coalition—plus Laborers Local 1095, CWA Local 6143, AFSCME Local 2021, and Electrical Workers Local 60—are bringing together San Antonio workers and community members on Labor Day to send a clear message about Project Marvel: It is unacceptable to spend hundreds of millions of public dollars on a new stadium, while underpaid teachers spend their own money preparing classrooms for working class students of our urban core.
“We should not be discussing massive public investment in sports entertainment downtown without addressing the struggles of working class families in our city.” There should be “equal investment in public education, public transportation, affordable housing, and should create strong, well-paid union jobs.
“This Labor Day, we need to show up—and show out,” declares the North Shore AFL-CIO, organizers of Cleveland’s 11th Congressional District demonstration. “The stakes for working people have never been higher. From threats to union rights and health care to attacks on wages, public services, and democracy itself, this year’s parade isn’t just a celebration—it’s a statement. A big, loud, united statement that we will not back down.”
And Tallahassee, Fla., will host a fundraiser and discussion at the American Legion hall. Its headline is “From Florida to the Nation: How State Legislation Became a National Blueprint.”
“We’ll explore how recent laws passed in Florida are influencing national policy—and how working people can fight back,” organizers say.
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