Protesters Will Rally In Newark For ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ On May Day

NEWARK, NJ — It’s time to put “workers over billionaires,” activists say.

A wave of national protests is scheduled for Friday, May 1 in solidarity with International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day.

According to organizers, thousands of Workers Over Billionaires events are being planned across all 50 states, including New Jersey. Each protest is being led by a different local group or coalition.

A local protest is being planned in Newark. The rally will start 11 a.m. at the Lincoln Statue, 12 Springfield Avenue. A march to the federal building at 970 Broad Street after the rally is also planned.

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In Essex County, other demonstrations are being planned in Verona and West Caldwell, in addition to Montclair State University and Rutgers University. Other nearby North Jersey rallies will include a demonstration in Jersey City. See a list of New Jersey events here.

Activists are making three demands as part of their “Real Affordability Agenda”:

• “Tax the rich: so our families, not their fortunes, come first”
• “No ICE, no war: no private armies to serve authoritarian power”
• “Expand democracy, not corporate rule”

Organizers are also calling for people to avoid shopping or going to work on Friday.

The “May Day Strong campaign is being supported by more than 500 labor and community groups. Organizers are calling for nonviolent action from participants, advising them to de-escalate any potential confrontation from counter-protesters.

Last week, a coalition of local groups and advocates held a news conference in Essex County about the upcoming May Day rallies. Some of their demands included increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, passing pro-union laws, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, and achieving “equal pay for equal work.” Other demands include enforcing “fair contracts,” creating a living wage in the U.S., and supporting paid sick leave, universal child care, “Medicare For All,” free college, the elimination of student debt, and a national federal jobs program to eliminate unemployment.

“We are having this press conference today to make a collective call for people to come out and protest and engage in various types of activities on May Day, which is rooted in labor’s struggle for the eight-hour work day, the right to organize unions, and engage in collective bargaining,” said Larry Hamm, chair of the People’s Organization For Progress, one of the groups spearheading Friday’s rally in Newark.

“We want people to come out because working people are struggling, suffering and losing ground – and some are going under,” Hamm said.

Essex County-based SOMA Action, which plans to attend the May Day rally in Jersey City, called for people to avoid “business as usual” on May 1.

“When those in power break every rule, take the country to war, threaten to commit war crimes, and then try to stop us from voting them out, it’s going to take all of us, together, to stop them,” the group wrote in an email to its members on Monday.

• RELATED: NJ Advocates Tell Lawmakers To ‘Tax The Rich’ As Budget Season Heats Up

On the national stage, advocates supporting this week’s rallies include Erica Payne, founder of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of “wealthy Americans fighting against the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in the United States.”

“Trillion-dollar companies pay starvation wages and American taxpayers subsidize overpaid CEOs who consider human exploitation a smart business model,” Payne said.

“If we’re handing out grades this May Day, America's C-Suite gets an F,” Payne said. “And most lawmakers skipped the class.”

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Organizers say they’re hoping attendance will surpass the 2025 May Day rallies, whose attendees included Gov. Mikie Sherrill. The governor – then a congresswoman – attended a protest in West Caldwell.

“From Haymarket to today, May Day has always been about the power of labor,” Sherrill said.

• RELATED: May Day Protests In Essex County Attract NJ Governor Candidates

There have also been calls to lower corporate and business taxes in New Jersey.

Some New Jersey Republican leaders such as Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips have called for the state to loosen up its “worst-in-the-nation” 11.5 percent corporate business tax. DePhillips has also opposed the additional 2.5 percent corporate transit fee charged to businesses earning over $1 million.

“Businesses that stay in New Jersey have to cut costs somewhere and unfortunately that is translating to job loss, because that is what they can control,” he said. “The unemployment rate indicates that New Jersey is moving in the wrong direction and the only way to correct course is to cut taxes.”

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The Workers Over Billionaires rallies are taking place on the heels of the latest round of “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration, which reportedly attracted millions of participants.

• RELATED: Anti-Trump Protesters Rally By The Thousands In 'No Kings' Events Across NJ
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