May 1, or May Day, is honored internationally as International Workers’ Day. Below is a selection of UE NEWS articles about UE participation in May Day activities and the history of May Day.
On Friday, May 1, UE members across the country organized and joined marches, rallies, and other actions to mark International Workers’ Day, and to strengthen their connections to other unions and community organizations. These actions were among over 5,000 organized by the May Day Strong coalition (of which UE is a part) under the banner “Workers Over Billionaires.”
On Thursday, May 1, UE locals across the country participated in International Workers’ Day actions to stand up for workers’ rights. Local 667 joined a march in Pittsburgh and Local 1498-GWU held a series of actions throughout their campus in Las Cruces, New Mexico, including a screening of the film UNION, which tells the story of how Amazon workers in Staten Island won their union. Local 896-COGS in Iowa City, Iowa participated in a mass march to stop deportations and to keep families together.
Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE) Local 197, a PhD workers' union at Johns Hopkins University, joined the rallies on May Day to demand that the university's administration protect international students, workers and research funding.
“The upshot is that we want them to be proactive about protecting our workers’ rights, to protect them from ICE and to protect their research funding,” said Stephen Schmidt, a graduate worker and member of TRU-UE Local 197.
[UE Local 1103-GSU President] Evan Yamaguchi, a third-year graduate worker at the University of Chicago, was among the thousands holding signs and banners.
“Workers literally had to fight for their lives just for an eight-hour workday,” he said. “So it’s crucial now more than ever for all of us to recognize that whatever rights we have aren’t given, they’re won and hard fought for.”
A UE delegation joined guests from Italy and hundreds of immigrant rights activists for May Day in Chicago this year. UE hosted representatives of Federazioni Impiegati Operai Metallurgici (Federation of Metalworkers, FIOM-CGIL) to commemorate International Workers’ Day with a new plaque on the Haymarket Square monument.
This year, we celebrate International Workers Day as the novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the central importance of workers to our society. It is the labor of frontline workers — healthcare workers, grocery and food workers, sanitation workers and others — that is keeping people alive right now, not the wealth accumulated by capitalists.
UE members marked International Workers’ Day in their communities and workplaces on May 1, joining marches, rallies and forums and wearing union t-shirts in the shop in Chicago, Los Angeles, Madison, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Vermont. Two UE members were also interviewed for an In These Times magazine article, “Why May Day Continues to Capture the Hearts and Imaginations of Workers.”
“May Day serves as a reminder to all working people around the world that we are facing a common struggle, and that we are still the majority,” Joel Faypon, a member of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1008, tells In These Times. “And that we still have the power to drive world politics to a direction that would best serve us.”
The tradition of May 1 as the international holiday of the working class began in the United States, but for many decades was lost to the U.S. working class. Beginning in 2006, with mass marches and work stoppages by immigrant workers, working people in this country have begun to reclaim their day.
UE’s three national officers – President John Hovis, Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Klipple and Director of Organization Bob Kingsley – have sent solidarity greetings to Bob McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union as ILWU members prepare to shut down all of the West Coast ports on May Day to protest Bush’s war policies.