World Fed. of Trade Unions: May Day 2026 will be ‘milestone of struggle’

As the world prepares to mark the 140th anniversary of the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Affair, including massive demonstrations and actions planned in the U.S. under the “Workers Over Billionaires” banner, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is calling on the international working class to mobilize its forces this May Day in the struggle for workers’ rights, democracy, peace, and equality.

Representing more than 105 million workers across every corner of the globe, the WFTU—the historic international trade union organization—said the demands of the Chicago pioneers remain as urgent today as they were 140 years ago.

“The crisis of capitalism is deepening and generalizing,” they said in their May Day declaration. “Social inequalities are dramatically widening. Democratic freedoms and trade union rights are under attack across the world, while imperialist wars and interventions are on the agenda.”

Women workers, youth, and migrants continue to face intensified exploitation, lower wages, greater job insecurity, and limited access to health, education, and culture, they said. “They are the first victims of anti-worker policies and labor deregulation, making them particularly exposed to the attacks of capital.”

Health and safety in the workplace, the federation noted, is being systematically degraded around the globe. Protective measures are treated as a “cost” by employers, leading to an increase in workplace accidents and fatalities.

“Every day, workers are injured or lose their lives on the altar of profit, revealing in the most tragic way the priorities of the system.”

The WFTU also warned that the new era of digitalization and artificial intelligence, instead of being used for the benefit of workers and society, is being deployed to intensify exploitation, monitor workers, and expand flexible, precarious forms of employment such as gig-work and “independent” contractors.

State and corporate repression against trade unionists and democratic freedoms is also intensifying around the world, they said. Strikes are increasingly criminalized, migrants and refugees are used as cheap labor with virtually no rights, and racism and exploitation remain rampant. The energy crisis, inflation, and high prices continue to erode workers’ incomes while wages remain stagnant and the profits of multinational corporations soar.

Faced with this, the WFTU said, the response of the international working class must be to struggle. It issued a series of demands for this May Day, including:

• Wage increases and collective labor agreements with full rights
• Effective measures to protect against high prices and inflation
• Public and free healthcare, education, and social security for all
• Reduction of work time, permanent employment with stable working hours, abolition of “flexible” forms of labor, and protection for workers on digital platforms
• Health and safety measures in all workplaces
• Respect for trade union rights and democratic freedoms
• Protection of migrants, immigrant workers, and equal rights for all

The WFTU also pointed to the deepening crisis of ongoing imperialist wars and interventions as issues working people around the world should fight against. These include the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of its president, and the ongoing U.S. blockade against Cuba.

These events, they said, “have once again exposed, in all its magnitude, the hypocrisy, cynicism, and inhuman nature of imperialism.”

At the same time, the federation warned, government military spending is exploding, intensifying militarization and danger for working people everywhere. Meanwhile, the cost of these “war economies” is being passed on to workers through austerity, privatization, and the dismantling of social gains.

“Workers have no interest in the wars and antagonisms of those who have the power. On the contrary, they have everything to gain from unity, solidarity, and common struggle,” the WFTU said.

The federation called on trade unions everywhere to strengthen their struggles and organize resistance in every workplace, every sector of the economy, and every country.

“Strength lies in organization. Hope lies in struggle,” their May Day declaration concluded.

The WFTU said it hopes this year’s May Day will be “a milestone of struggle and counteroffensive, for a world without imperialist wars and interventions, without discrimination and exploitation of man by man.”

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