Thousands of events across the United States are marking “May Day,” which is also known as International Workers Day, by celebrating union workers and highlighting some struggles they are facing.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke at a May Day rally at Washington Square Park on Friday afternoon in support of union workers. A number of different unions gathered at the park to advocate for labor rights, including higher wages and better healthcare.
Mamdani, standing underneath the Washington Square Arch, told the crowd, “workers have shaped history from where we stand right now.”
He paid homage to those in the past who fought for change and better working conditions for union workers.
“We speak of Eugene Debs calling for the eight-hour workday and the end of child labor, where 20,000-plus called for change after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911. Workers have won the rights that are taken for granted today; the 40-hour work week, the weekend, overtime pay, minimum wage, social security, workplace safety standards, these have all been won by the workers who came before us, and yet we know that those rights are not inevitable. We have to work together to not just protect them, but to advance that same agenda,” Mamdani said.
Organizations like the New York Immigration Coalition, the New York City Central Labor Council and the AFL-CIO organized the rally and march called “We Will Not Be Silent.”
Some speakers connected the fight for labor rights with the fight for immigration rights.
“Our fight for fair wages, safe workplaces and dignity on the job is the same fight for immigrant justice. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Everyone deserves respect and dignity, no matter who they are, where they are born or what language they speak,“ Tiffany Jade Munroe, with the Caribbean Equality Project, said.
Union workers told NY1 that a priority for them is better wages.
“We do take pride in what we do we build the city,” Yeila Rodriguez, a member of Local 79, told NY1. “A lot of construction workers are getting underpaid, and we are going through a hard time financially, so it’s really important.”
“We’re here to stand up, fight tyranny, fight corporate greed,” Adam Orgel, the vice president of the Organization of Staff Analysts, said. “We want better raises, we’d like raises that keep up with the costs of living adjustments, keep up with inflation, because the raises we get are nowhere even close.”
People at the rally marched from Washington Square Park to Foley Square.
Organizers are also calling on state leaders to pass the New York for All Act, which is legislation that would limit cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
