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Today outside of Trump Tower, worker centers announced a bold set of demands ahead of May Day, or International Workers’ Day. Rooted in a commitment to resisting fascism and defending workers’ rights, our demands reflect the urgent need to defend immigrant communities, fight exploitation, and invest in a country where every worker can thrive. This platform is a call to action—and a vision for the world we deserve.

Our May Day Demands

As workers, we rise up against fascism in all its forms! We march to take what’s ours:

End Labor Exploitation. Wages, Dignity, and Health for All.

Every worker deserves dignity, safety, and fair compensation. Yet, corporations and government policies continue to fuel exploitation—through child labor, prison labor, and subminimum wages that keep workers in poverty. We demand:

• Safe and harassment-free workplaces where no worker is put in harm’s way for profit and no worker is denied rights based on the work they do, including day laborers. 
• Fair hiring practices that ensure equal opportunities and end discrimination on the job.
• An end to child labor once and for all, because no child should be forced to work to the detriment of their health and education.
• End prison labor exploitation, which treats incarcerated people as disposable workers with no rights.
• An end to sub-minimum wage, which traps disabled workers and tipped workers in cycles of poverty.
• A federal minimum wage increase, so no one working full-time is forced to live off crumbs

Invest in the working class! We paid our dues— You pay yours.

The working class keeps this country running. We care for children and elders, harvest food, build homes, stock shelves, clean hospitals, and power the economy. We’ve paid our dues—through our labor and our taxes. But while we give everything, the government keeps taking more: cutting healthcare programs and survival services, eroding protections, and stripping away the state’s ability to defend workers rights. We demand investment in the people who really make this country run:

• The protection and expansion of Medicaid, ensuring every low-income person has access to the care they need.
• Hands off trans-affirming healthcare—because gender-affirming care is essential, life-saving, and must be protected from political attacks
• Restore and fund the agencies that were built to protect us—like OSHA, the NLRB, and the Department of Labor. When these institutions are underfunded or dismantled, exploitation thrives.
• An end to government attacks on our data, ensuring that the IRS, DHS, and other agencies cannot weaponize personal information to target us.

Stop Criminalization & End Deportations

Our government has relied on punishment and surveillance to control communities' access to safety and equity while denying formerly-incarcerated citizens their due rights, and now they are considering new paths to target and arrest immigrants and dissenters. From deportations, to mass incarceration, we reject policies that criminalize survival and dissent. We demand:

• An end to permanent punishments—formerly incarcerated people must have their rights restored, including housing, jobs, and the right to vote.
• A complete halt to deportations, which tear families apart and criminalize migration.

Join us at Union Park on May 1 as we march to demand dignity, safety, and justice for all workers. Want to march with us? Sign up to receive updates about the march, or text “May” to (773) 917-0727.