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Hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. and globe gathered on May 1, or International Workers Day, also known as May Day, to celebrate the international labor movement and resist the agendas of leaders that they say are attempting to divide the working class by attacking unions and immigrant communities. This year, labor leaders in the U.S. made a national call for May Day actions, building on the momentum of the “Hands Off” rallies earlier in April that drew large crowds in all 50 states. People across the country are mobilizing under the call, “For the Workers, Not the Billionaires.”
Minnesota’s labor movement is participating in a week of actions hosted by labor unions and immigrants rights groups and have been specifically calling out the Trump administration’s anti-worker, anti-immigrant agenda. We will update this piece throughout the week.
Grocery workers rally across the Twin Cities Metro
On April 27, workers and allies rallied outside Lunds and Byerlys in Edina, Minn. The crowd led chants in support of the 9,000 groceries workers represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 663 as negotiations continue for a new contracts. In March, contracts expired at 14 companies, seven of whom are in coordinated bargaining: Haug’s Cub Foods, Jerry’s Cub Foods/Jerry’s Foods, Kowalski’s Markets, Radermacher’s Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Knowlan’s Festival Foods, and UNFI Cub Foods. (The bargaining is coordinated on the union’s side, though employers are insisting on separate agreements.)
The rally is one of several actions coordinated by UFCW 663 over the past month across the Twin Cities metro, including rallies at Cub Foods in Bloomington, Jerry’s Foods in Edina, and Lunds & Byerlys in Maple Grove.
The workers are demanding better wages, more affordable healthcare plans, improved staffing, and more consistent scheduling. Workers also claim employers are stalling at the negotiation table by insisting on bargaining seven different contracts instead of one.
The Lunds and Byerlys, Edina rally was supported by Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan in support of the grocery workers. Lieutenant Gov. Flanagan reiterated the workers contract campaign’s rally cry, “One job should be enough”.
According to a statement from UFCW 663, the workers could choose to strike if an agreement is not reached with the seven employers.
Rally at MSP airport
On Thursday, around 150 people rallied at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport with federal workers represented by American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) whose right to collective bargaining was terminated by President Trump in March. Flight attendants, baggage handlers, and cleaners chanted and marched alongside hotel workers and rideshare drivers.
“While they’re stripping away our rights, they’re setting the stage for something worse: privatization,” said Mechell Snider, who has worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for four years and is calling for her employer to take leadership before a disaster can occur. “You broke trust, you disrespected your workforce, and you awakened a union that will not be silenced.”
“This is a public institution that depends on immigrant workers,” said SEIU Local 26 president Greg Nammacher at the rally.
“When Trump cancelled that contract, he made all of us less safe,” AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson said at the rally. “When Trump cancelled that contract, he made all of us less safe.”
Nuh Aden is a cleaner for ERMC Aviation, which provides maintenance services for airport terminals across the globe. “Rent is too high, and wages are too low,” he says. He stands with rideshare drivers who are demanding a space to be able to use the restroom and to pray.
Earlier that morning, rideshare drivers and union representatives testified at the state senate’s Labor committee hearing in favor of a bill that would grant them collective bargaining rights and the right to join a union.
Hamsa Hussein has been driving for Uber and Lyft for seven years. “I don’t know how to explain my condition of work to a billionaire,” he said at the rally. “Individually, we can do nothing. I am sure we will win if we are together.”
Unity rally at the state capitol
On Thursday, thousands of members of unions and immigrant rights groups gathered at the Minnesota state capitol for a rally and march led by Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).
Brad Sigal is a rank-and-file member of Teamsters Local 638 and has been a member of MIRAC since its inception in 2006. Sigal recalled the first May Day protest in 2006, which he said was one of the biggest mobilizations against the Bush administration’s attempts at criminalizing immigrants. He also recalled the Reagan administration’s busting of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) in 1981.
“A lot of people do see the moment, that Trump trying to wipe out contracts of hundreds of thousands of federal workers is severe,” he says. “The only response is everyone united fighting back together.”
Latifah Moss is a daughter of immigrants and has been a member of MIRAC since 2020. She said she began joining protests after the George Floyd uprisings. “A lot of people are ignited this year,” she says. “Immigrants will always be contributing members to our society and to Minnesota.”
AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson, who spoke at both rallies at the airport and the capitol, says that the campaign to organize Delta workers is closer than ever to filing for union election. She also invoked the general strike that Minneapolis workers waged in 1934 that built worker power across the country.
“It didn’t come from FDR, it came from the power of working people standing up and demanding a social contract that makes sense,” she says in an interview with Workday Magazine. “Talking about a general strike is really talking about helping people understand the power we have together. I’m talking about it very forcefully. We’re preparing for it.”
Hilton Hotel Workers rally in downtown Minneapolis
On May 2, Hilton hotel workers and allies gathered for a rally in front of the downtown Minneapolis hotel. The workers, represented by Unite Here Local 17, are bargaining for a new contract—and demanding wage increases after years of roll-backs since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The last contract expired in 2019, and are fighting to win back concessions made during the early days of the pandemic.
The hotel is “wall-to-wall” union workers, including housekeepers, food service workers, and other roles represented by Unite Here Local 17. Front desk and bellhop workers are represented by the Teamsters. The Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis is one of the largest hotels in the midwest and the largest in the state of Minnesota. The hotel was built in-part built with state taxpayer dollars in 1992.
Isabela Escalona
Workers rallying in front of the Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis.Geoffrey Paquette, a Unite Here Local 17 internal organizing director, explained that the hotel workers have seen some of the “lowest pay raises in the city” and that housekeepers’ pay is the “worst example.”
According to Paquette, after the pandemic, many hotel workers accepted concessions from employers due to the industry’s uncertainty and sudden loss in revenue, yet have not been rewarded with any back pay or wage increases. Paquette described Hilton as one of the “worst pandemic profiteers.”