“Workers Over Billionaires” Labor Day Events Climb to Nearly 600 Events Across All 50 States
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After gathering more than 2,400 people for an incredible virtual call on August 14 featuring multiple labor leaders, “Workers Over Billionaires” events scheduled for Labor Day (September 1) soared to 584 events and counting across the country.
On September 1st, the May Day Strong Coalition will continue the movement they launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all people. Thousands of communities across the country are taking a stand on Labor Day. Workers will be in the streets, outside the offices of corporate executives, and at congressional offices. Together they will demand a country that puts workers over billionaires.
Organizers say that, at a time when billionaires are turning the government into a slush fund for the wealthy, gutting Medicaid, firing federal workers, and ravaging families through ICE raids, they are rising up to demand a stop to the billionaire takeover–not just through the ballot box or the courts, but through collective action. Labor and community groups are coming together to fight for a country that is more fair, just, equitable, and free for all people—and not just a chosen few.
“As a collective labor movement, fighting corporate power and fighting billionaires is what we do. When we stand together, as a community of working people, we go up against incredibly powerful companies with massive amounts of money and influence all day long and we win,” said Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO. “Workers deserve corporate accountability that reigns in outrageous CEO pay and the greed that is making food, housing, and basic needs so much more expensive for working families.”
“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers. “This Labor Day is really different, because it’s not just labor unions, as important as we may be to the workers we represent. It has to be all workers and all working families saying enough. Workers and working families deserve the bounty of the country.”
“There are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the country with a whopping 6 trillion dollars and that is still not enough for them,” said Saqib Bhattie, Executive Director of the Action Center on Race & the Economy. “They are pushing elected officials to slash Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and special education funding for schools in order to fund their tax breaks. We need to claw back money from the billionaire. We need to push legislation to tax billionaires at the state and local levels. We need to organize to build the people power necessary to overcome their money.”
“We have to summon our history to rise to the historic moment we’re in today,” explains Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union. “Enslaved Africans broke the back of the confederacy through a general strike and a coalition with abolitionists. We’re going to need that organization and that level of coalition to confront Trump’s attempt to bring the confederacy back. It won’t be stopped just in the courts or at the ballot box. Authoritarianism and the robbing of our children of our future stops when labor and communities organize together to demand a country that works for workers instead of the billionaires.”
“Since May Day, we see the onslaught of attacks on our communities escalating, our organizing has to escalate with it. We know that billionaires are making record profit while we are losing people every day. And we are facing the moment, through mobilizations, conversations, and training. There’s more of us than there are of them. We just have to organize ourselves together.” Neidi Dominguez, Executive Director of Organized Power in Numbers
“We know what we are up against. The consolidation of power is happening quickly. We know that the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few has been a steady march for decades. That has all of us together pushing, demanding, cajoling that this country live up to the poetry of the Constitution and to live up to ‘We the people.’” Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association.
“A roof over one’s head, food on the table, and power to keep the lights on, are basic needs,” said Sulma Arias, Executive Director of People’s Action Institute. “We deserve to earn a living wage working one job instead of three. We deserve affordable childcare and education for our kids without mountains of debt. We deserve comprehensive health care from the day we’re born to the day we die. We deserve a planet that is living and breathing for generations to come. We deserve a retirement with security and dignity. Saying we can’t afford it is a lie. Their Big MAGA Murder Bill gave away trillions of our public dollars to pay for tax cuts that the wealthy don’t need.”
"This Labor Day we continue the fight for our democracy, the fight for the soul of our nation, the fight against the vindictive authoritarian moves Trump and the billionaire class aimed at stealing from working people and concentrating power,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public Citizen. “We stand together to once again say that this is our country. We are the workers, the teachers, the voters, and we will not back down."
Contact: press@maydaystrong.org