On Labor Day this year, unions and workers' rights groups are calling on advocates to forgo the traditional barbecues and picnics known for ending the summer season, and to instead hold thousands of nationwide rallies "to expose the billionaire agenda" that's harming working families and fueling U.S. President Donald Trump's authoritarian rise.
Unions representing teachers and other workers are joining with other advocacy organizations to turn Labor Day 2025 on September 1 into "a day of protest and recruitment," and an opportunity to fortify their national campaigns against Trump's attacks on healthcare, Social Security, and other safety net programs.
With the Trump administration overseeing mass firings in the federal government and gutting worker protections and social services in the interest of transferring more than $1 trillion in tax breaks to the richest 1% of Americans, groups including Public Citizen and Popular Democracy will spend the holiday "connecting with 30 million workers, training thousands of new leaders to create 'strike ready' cities and states, and supporting each others' local fights to stop abuses in the workplace," according to the former group.
"The Trump regime is perpetrating the most anti-union, anti-worker agenda in modern American history," said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. "Trump's union-busting efforts are an order of magnitude greater than [former President Ronald] Reagan's attack on the air traffic employee union; he is working to destroy the independence of the [National Labor Relations Board] and he has perpetrated possibly the largest ever transfer of wealth from working people to the super rich. This Labor Day, Americans are joining together to reject Trump's authoritarian anti-worker agenda and demanding the society we want and need."
"On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people's needs first."
The groups are building on nationwide actions that have already taken place in thousands of cities and towns as part of the Hands Off, No Kings, and Good Trouble Lives On mobilizations, where demonstrators have spoken out against Trump's mass deportation agenda, attacks on voting rights through the administration's mass collection of voter data, and his assault on federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts.
"Since May Day, we've see the onslaught of attacks on our communities escalating, [and] our organizing has to escalate with it," said Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Organized Power in Numbers, which participated in nationwide protests on May Day. "We know that billionaires are making record profits 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."
The rallies will "center the conversation on the impact on working people specifically," and will demand a unifying platform of:
"The only thing to stop billionaires like Trump or [tech mogul] Peter Thiel from bulldozing working families' economic security and the safety nets we've built to take care of each other is people power," said Analilia Mejia, co-director of Popular Democracy. "They attack our democracy in order to get away with stealing our schools, our healthcare, and our futures. On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people's needs first."
In a separate action, the AFL-CIO is organizing nationwide rallies, picnics, and parades as part of its Workers' Labor Day, following a Workers Deserve Labor Day week of action.
The union has spent two months crisscrossing the country on a bus tour, highlighting workers' organizing efforts and fights to win fair contracts and working conditions.
Despite Trump's deregulatory attacks on workers, the AFL-CIO noted that more than 70% of Americans and nearly 90% of people under 30 support unions.
"The fight for freedom, fairness, and security has never been more popular," said the union.
Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said that despite Republicans' efforts to divide Americans, "working people are more united than ever to restore our fundamental freedoms and spark an organizing renaissance that sets our country on a new course."
"The CEOs and billionaires are scared of us. That's why they're attacking us," said Redmond. "I've got a message for those who are assaulting our rights: You're right to be scared. Working people are the backbone of this country, and when we join together in solidarity, nothing can stop us."