Tempest members joined hundreds of workers and community members in support of SEIU-USWW SFO airport workers as they campaigned around raising minimum wages to $30\/hr. The action blocked vehicle access to the International Terminal starting at 11 AM. As first vice president, Sanjay Garla reported, LAX workers recently won $30\/hr minimum wage, and SFO workers deserve the same. Garla also emphasized that in order for SFO to be safe for workers and passengers, we must demand “ICE out of SFO.”<\/p>\n
SEIU United worker Carlos Sabata, in their first ever public speech, emphasized the international character of airport workers in the context of the international history of May Day, rousing the crowd with chants of “we are not invisible” and “we are not replaceable.” The crowd marched inside the terminal before twenty-five people were arrested, blocking the road in a planned civil disobedience action, including local politicians and labor leaders.<\/p>\n
A few thousand joined two afternoon demonstrations and marches along Market Street at Civic Center and Embarcadero. The demonstrations were not huge, but they were spirited and full of unions, community groups, and left organizations. Some students walked out at a few high schools, and some educators joined them. Downtown High School educators shut down the school with a wildcat strike.<\/p>\n
Oakland witnessed an unprecedented commemoration of May Day today. The day started with a rally at the ILWU Local 6 union hall near the Oakland International Airport at 9 AM. Over 500 people packed the union hall and pledged to join the \u201cjoyous rebellion\u201d at the airport. This event was cosponsored by several organizations, including ACCE, Bay Resistance, Indivisible East Bay, AROC, Palestinian Youth Movement, USPCN, East Bay DSA, etc. The coalition partners planned for this action months in advance. Along with the May Day demands of \u201cTax the rich,\u201d \u201cEnd US wars,\u201d and \u201cAbolish ICE,\u201d the coalition agreed to uphold the demands of the Oakland Arms Embargo campaign to hold the Port of Oakland, which administers both the seaport and airport, accountable for sending weapons to Israel.<\/p>\n
At the electrifying gathering at the ILWU Local 6, the protesters formed two groups. One group joined the car caravan and the other was bused to the airport. Around 300 participants, who were bused to the airport, formed a picket line at the entrance to the departure hall. Meanwhile, a caravan of about 30 cars started approaching the airport. The deliberately sluggish caravan blocked the incoming traffic to the airport and started honking in tandem as it reached the departure hall. The controlled frenzy garnered the attention of the passengers and law enforcement alike. A few on-foot protesters took to the street, risking arrest, leading the car-caravan, and holding banners that read \u201cNo work. No school. No shopping\u201d and \u201cICE out of our streets. Israel out of OAK fleets.\u201d The carefully orchestrated picket-caravan double whammy brought the departure terminal of the Oakland airport to a standstill for about 20 minutes. The protesters vowed to return as the picket line dispersed after the caravan passed.<\/p>\n
The crowd reconvened at 3 PM in Fruitvale, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood of the city of Oakland, to hold another rally and march. Oakland Sin Fronteras<\/em> (Oakland Without Borders) coalition organized this rally, followed by a resource fair. Several organizations, including Bay Area Cuba Solidarity Network, Black Organizing Project, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Oakland Tenants Union, OEA Rapid Response Team, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, etc., offered services and material support to the community at the resource fair. At a gathering of about a thousand people, the speakers voiced their strong disapproval of deportations, travel bans, and racial profiling of immigrants and refugees.<\/p>\n The day ended with several cultural events taking place in the different parts of the East Bay. La Pe\u00f1a Cultural Center in Berkeley held a \u201cParty for the Workers\u201d concert featuring Bambu, Boots Riley, etc. In downtown Oakland at Fluid510, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff gave a talk on their newest publication, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.<\/em><\/p>\n The UC Berkeley Labor Coalition held a May Day rally in front of UC Berkeley\u2019s California Hall (where the office of the UC Berkeley Chancellor, Rich Lyons, is located) in support of AFSCME\u2019s open-ended strike that was scheduled to begin on May 14th. That strike has since been called off as a tentative agreement has been reached. In addition, the rally also called for support for the contract fight of UC-AFT 1474 (which represents lecturers, librarians, and archivists across the UCs). There were speakers from several unions, including UAW 4811 (the grad workers\u2019 union), UC-AFT 1474, and UPTE-CWA 9119 (University Professional and Technical Employees), as well as campus organizations such as Blackstone Divestment and the ICE off-campus campaign. A big theme of the rally was connecting the funding of Zionism and genocide to labor struggles and the fight against ICE in the US. Soon after the rally began, chanting could be heard coming from another side of the campus, which turned out to be a large group of students from Berkeley High School who led a walkout and came to campus to join the rally. Two of the high school students (who were also members of the Sunrise Movement) spoke in support of their teachers and immigrant workers. The participation of the high school students, including their two speakers, was especially impressive and moving.<\/p>\n May Day 2026 in San Jose started with a Rally at the corner of Story and King, followed by a march to San Jose City Hall. Union members seemed to have the largest groups, and were supported by the South Bay Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA. There was a very strong presence of SEIU folks from various locals, along with Alphabet Workers and Flight Attendant union members. Students from 10 San Jose high schools walked out to join the event. Socialist organizations included FRSO, DSA, and PSL. The billionaire candidate for governor of California, Tom Steyer, made an appearance at the Rally.<\/p>\n The Rally was the largest grouping of folks at Story and King in the last ten years, and folks were still marching the three miles to City Hall three hours after they got started on the three-mile route. Some organizations tabled at City Hall, and the crowd was a pretty good size for San Jose.<\/p>\n In a new departure influenced by growing interest in general strikes as a means to defend threatened democracy, County employees in San Diego\u2019s SEIU Local 221 joined International Workers\u2019 Day festivities.\u00a0 Militant workers phone-banked and organized co-workers for weeks, encouraging them to take either unpaid leave or vacation time. This falls short of full strike action as it does not involve direct defiance of the boss. But importantly, it did demonstrate\u2013to ourselves, our co-workers, and our class rallying together for May 1\u2013a willingness to collectively make an economic sacrifice for a cause.\u00a0 And this day of skipping work and missing pay was done primarily under political slogans\u2013ICE Out of San Diego, No War in Iran, Tax the Rich, <\/em>and Protect Our Votes.<\/em><\/p>\n There was also one key economic demand\u2013End Tier D. Tier D is the outrageous pension plan in place for all County employees hired since 2017, requiring them to postpone retirements late into old age. Members knew that the May 1 action would not accomplish this goal by itself. But by raising our own particular issue, alongside those important to the cause of social justice and our class as a whole, we took an opportunity to publicize it in a way that begins to knit it into a larger campaigning alliance.<\/p>\n Workers spent the whole day together, meeting at 9 AM at the Union hall, where two buses drove them first to the mid-day rally at Chicano Park, then to the action in support of janitors at the San Diego International Airport, and finally to the late afternoon action organized by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Central Labor Council.<\/p>\n About 50 county workers took part in the daylong action. 160 declared that they would not work. It is unknown whether fewer or more actually took the day off. This is a small fraction of the 11,000 represented County workers, but an unprecedented step while working under an unexpired contract.<\/p>\n Tony Ledezma, a worker at Agriculture, Weights, and Measures and a former Federal employee, said, \u201cWhen Trump went to power, he illegally fired us. Because of the Union, I got my (Federal) job back.\u201d But \u201cTier D is not working for people; it should be altered.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c2026 has just been chaos and nonsense\u2026I think there\u2019s a bunch of people in high office that have an agenda that is taking power away from the people and benefitting corporations and the ultra-wealthy,\u201d said Dan of Behavioral Health Services.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re spending billions on war, cutting health care, cutting education, and separating families.\u201d<\/p>\nBerkeley\/UC Berkeley<\/h4>\n
San Jose, CA<\/h4>\n
San Diego, CA<\/h4>\n