The Food Chain Workers Alliance is among dozens of organizations around the country that belong to a network called May Day United, to promote a national outpouring of working people on May 1, 2011.
The network is uniting worker and community-based organizations around solutions to the hardships facing working families and against escalating attacks on the rights of workers, especially immigrants and workers of color.
“Public workers are fighting heroically for the rights of unions in Wisconsin and other states. Immigrants and students are organizing against racial profiling and the ban on ethnic studies in Arizona. While the backs of working families are against the wall, people are out in the streets and are fighting back,” said David Bacon, the workers’ rights journalist. “The May Day marches this year will give us the chance to bring these efforts together, and show that we’re all fighting for the same thing—jobs, equality, and basic rights.”
Inspired by the historic May Day actions of 2006, the massive protests in Wisconsin, the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and the original struggle for the eight-hour work day commemorated by May 1st actions around the globe, May Day United invites everyday working families across the country to stand together against increasing corporate and governmental assaults on the right to join a union and the right to work free of anti-immigrant discrimination. Organizations can join the network at https://www.maydayunited.org.
“I came to this country to work hard for my children and that’s what I’ve done,” said Maria Corona, an immigrant worker in New York City. “When my co-workers and I stood up against wage theft, the employer fired us all. Even though a judge found our firing illegal, we haven’t seen any justice because the employer is resisting the court order with arguments about our immigration status. I won’t be going to work on May 1st, I’ll be on the streets for justice and I hope to see many with me.”
May Day United will not be directly organizing demonstrations on May 1st – the network will use organizing, compelling digital and print materials, as well as legal support to increase participation in existing May Day demonstrations and assist communities in organizing their own actions.
The organizations that have come together to build the network expect that many groups around the country will respond to the call for dynamic and assertive actions on May 1, 2011 in favor of jobs with dignity and true equality.
Find a May 1st action in your community and mobilize your co-workers, friends, and family to join you. May Day United also has great resources to support worker participation in May 1st actions, including know-your-rights materials in English and Spanish, a mobilization video and flyers in both languages, and a press kit.
The network is on the web at https://maydayunited.org, on Facebook at https://facebook.com/maydayunited, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mdunited.