New Jersey joins the nation in a May Day call to action
Students, workers, families, and other community members gather for the May Day rally at Independence Park in Newark, New Jersey, on May 1st, 2025. Photo credit: Renee Johnston for Public Square Amplified.
Newark, NJ - May 1st will see citizens across the United States participating in over a thousand protests and rallies led by May Day Strong, a coalition of nearly 200 grassroots and civic organizations nationwide, many of which were behind the National Hands Off campaign on April 5th. The goal of these protests is to unite the public in addressing and preventing what organizers have described as a “billionaire takeover” of the American government.
According to May Day Strong, 17 municipalities in New Jersey will hold events on May 1st, May 3rd, and May 4th to protest the sweeping policy changes, employee layoffs, and federal funding cuts enacted by Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk. May Day Strong’s website insists the duo is in a “war on working people” as Trump and his “billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom–on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself.”
Modern efforts to undermine American labor date back to the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan cut anti-poverty programs, clashed with the Civil Rights Commission, and fired 11,000 air traffic controllers, including those who endorsed him, and banned them for life from federal employment. The Reagan Administration also increased Unemployment Insurance taxes and decreased its coverage, prohibited striking workers from receiving food stamps, cut funding for public-sector employment, and suppressed unions by making it more difficult for them to generate new members.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is an annual celebration occurring on May 1st, marking the struggles and achievements of the working class and the labor movement. Its genesis is actually rooted here in the United States during the decades-long fight for the eight-hour workday, which exploded on the streets of Chicago in 1886. On Thursday, working families here in New Jersey and across the country will spend May Day 2025 protesting the attack on federal unions carried out by the Trump Administration.
Specifically, the President generated backlash after issuing an executive order on March 27th that stripped federal workers of their collective bargaining and union rights. Likewise, Trump has been criticized for trying to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board with an illegal attempt to fire Chairperson Gwynne Wilcox for being pro-worker.
At the same time, people will protest the federal funding cuts to healthcare and education, the government’s gutting of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs, and illegal detention of U.S. citizens and immigrants without due process.
“There's no reason why one person needs to have a trillion dollars while all of us are starving to death. There's no reason for someone to have five mansions when we have so many folks who are living on the streets. That makes absolutely no sense,” said Catalina Adorno, a member of Movimento Cosecha, which fights for immigrant rights in America. “So, I think part of it is folks not really seeing what the bigger issue is, what the bigger problem is. But also, I think there's just a lot of propaganda that the ruling class uses to divert our attention or to confuse us. Where they're saying, ‘Oh, the reason why you can't find a job is because of the immigrants.’ And that's the story that they tell other people. It's that propaganda, too, that confuses people, so that they don't see the actual root causes.”
Students, workers, families, and other community members rally, before marching to Military Park, for the May Day rally at Independence Park in Newark, New Jersey, on May 1st, 2025. Photo credit: Renee Johnston for Public Square Amplified.
In 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 11.1% of workers in America were represented by a union, with 7 million members reportedly being public-sector workers and 7.2 million being private-sector workers. The Bureau also reported that New Jersey’s union members were a total of 682 workers, which was 16.2% of the state’s total employed wage and salary workers in 2024.
Local unions and organizations backing the May Day Protests include the New Jersey Education Association, the Communications Workers of America Union, the Working Families Party, Make the Road NJ, the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, the Coalition for Peace Action, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO, and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 21.
When discussing the May Day Protests, Emilio Muracchioli, an Organizer at Springfield’s IUAPT DC 21, said his union stands for “responsible bidder language, [Power of Attorney] language, workers’ rights, [and] tighter enforcement of our existing wage and hours [Department of Labor] laws” in New Jersey.
Andre C., one of the liaisons and organizers at 50501NJ, said, “At the heart of [our demands] is respect for the ideals of the United States and the laws of the United States. This administration has ignored the fact that its power is constrained by law, and it is bulldozing the law in favor of codifying the tools of oppression, and we cannot abide by that.”
Another key organizer of New Jersey’s May Day Protests is Indivisible, which also helped organize Hands Off protests in April. Through its chapters in the Garden State, Indivisible will continue to protest the Trump Administration, demanding that it grant fair wages, fair taxation, healthcare, and due process to all American residents.
“The administration makes choices every day that hurt working families. Poverty and hunger [are] a legislative choice, and we can elect leaders that will prioritize issues we care about instead of lining their own pockets,” said Laura Zurfluh, founder and leader of Indivisible Cranbury.
“May Day is the traditional day we celebrate workers,” she added, “but it’s also a distress call for ships and planes in dire distress. When a Mayday call goes out, everyone that hears it is obliged to answer. We are putting out a Mayday call, and we call upon every American to heed it and come to the aid of our democracy that is in dire distress.”
For those interested in joining the May Day protests in New Jersey, below is a list of where and when each event will take place. Registrations and more information on these protests can be found on mobilize.us:
Thursday, May 1:
Bloomfield - Bloomfield Avenue & Municipal Plaza | 3 - 6pm EDT
Chester - 195 US Highway 206 | 4 - 5:30pm EDT
Denville - Gazebo area next to Denville Museum, 107 Diamond Spring Rd | 6 - 7:30pm EDT
Franklin Township - 475 Demott Ln | 6 - 7:30pm EDT
Glassboro - William Dalton Drive & Delsea Drive | 5 - 6:30pm EDT
Newark - 51 Park Pl | 12:30 - 2:30pm EDT
Nutley - Yanticaw Park - Unity/Peace Statue, Passaic Ave | 12 - 12:45pm EDT
Passaic - Private address (sign up for more details) | 4 - 5pm EDT
Phillipsburg - Private address (sign up for more details) | 5 - 6pm EDT
Pleasantville - Billows Electric Supply, 301 N New Rd | 5 - 7pm EDT
Princeton - Fountain of Freedom, Washington Rd | 6 - 9pm EDT
Rahway - Rahway Train Station Plaza, East Milton Avenue & Irving Street | 5 - 6:30pm EDT
Trenton - World War II Memorial, 125 W State St | 11am - 2pm EDT
Vineland - Private address (sign up for more details) | 3 - 6pm EDT
West Caldwell - Crane Park, 30 Clinton Rd | 4 - 6pm EDT
Saturday, May 3:
Jersey City - Grove Street Plaza, Grove St | 10 - 11:30am EDT
Newton - Newton Green, 4 Spring St | 1 - 3pm EDT
Sunday, May 4:
Princeton - Hinds Plaza, Sylvia Beach Way | 1:30 - 3pm EDT
