May Day call grows for ‘No work, no school, no shopping’

A growing May Day movement is calling for “No Work, No School, No Shopping” on May 1. The call is driven by rising anger at war, attacks on immigrants, and a system that cuts what workers need while pouring billions into the military.

Protests against ICE in Minnesota spread to 300 cities across the country on Jan. 23. Since then, No Kings protests have brought millions more into the streets. From big cities to small towns, many are protesting for the first time. Now organizers are moving forward under a May Day general strike banner: “No Work, No School, No Shopping.”

Union support gives the May Day call momentum

Labor leaders from the National Education Association, National Nurses United, AFA-CWA, the Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Local 26 — which initiated the Jan. 23 strike in Minneapolis — and UE, along with AFT locals including UTLA, are mobilizing their members for May Day.

The umbrella coalition May Day Strong is hosting a national organizers’ call on April 9 at 7 p.m. ET.

Payday Report says UFCW Local 3000, which represents 50,000 workers in Washington state, is tabling at workplaces and community events. National Nurses United, with 200,000 members, is also backing the actions.  

May Day Strong says unions need to go beyond formal endorsements and symbolic solidarity. The coalition is urging locals to organize real work stoppages, not just send members to rallies, and to help fund legal defense for non-union workers who walk out. In Minnesota, non-union and legally constrained workers joined the Jan. 23 action by calling in sick en masse.

A major demand on May Day will echo the massive 2006 May Day strikes led by immigrant workers. Stop the attack on immigrants! Protesters have been targeting the hotels where ICE is staying. UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents 32,000 workers in Southern California and Arizona, has instructed members not to work at locations where ICE is present.

The courageous immigrant meatpackers’ strike at JBS Greeley is energizing the labor movement. Solidarity is spreading around workers facing both employer violence and the threat of ICE.

The fight of nurses’ unions to protect their jobs and their patients issued a fierce rallying cry. Other local strikes and union struggles across the country are also feeding into the May Day shutdown. 

Several large unions, including AFT, AAUP, NEA, Starbucks Workers United and UE, are mobilizing. Dozens of local labor bodies and union groups, including the North Carolina AFL-CIO, the Milwaukee Labor Council and UFCW Local 3000, have also signed on.

A PayDay Report map published March 28 listed a growing number of unions and labor groups backing the May Day call, including teachers, postal workers, labor councils, service workers, Teamsters, auto workers and campus unions across the country.

Among those signed on are: AFT New Mexico; APWU 132; Austin Central Labor Council; New Mexico Central Labor Council CGSU UE Local 300; Chicago Teachers Union; CWA Local 7799; Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice; Yellowstone Central Labor Council; AFSCME 2962; Illinois Federation of Teachers; Gilroy Teachers Association; LIUNA Local 3; MA Teachers Association; Mississippi Immigrants Rights Association; North Carolina AFL-CIO; NHFT 933; North Texas Area Labor Federation; Pittsburgh Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; Rio Grande Valley Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO; SEIU United Service Workers; Seven Mountains AFL-CIO; Teamsters Local 492; Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council; UAW 862; UFCW Local 3000; UNITE HERE Local 25; United Campus Workers of Georgia CWA Local 3821; United University Professions – SUNY Oneonta Chapter; Vermont State Educators Association; Washington Education Association; Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation; CWA Local 7250; OPIEU Local 12; LA Federation of Labor.

“May Day Strong is something that we are saying as a clarion call to all of our brethren, our union siblings across the nation,” says Marcia Howard, the African-American president of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators.

Members of IBU Local 802 and West Coast dockworkers in the ILWU already observe May Day as a union holiday. On the West Coast, the holiday was written into the contract after job actions against apartheid and police brutality.

Even where strikes are illegal, many union members are bound by contract language honoring picket lines. A community protest can form such a picket line.

May Day 2026 is shaping up as the most significant labor action in years.