Labor Day 2025: Workers will take to the streets to protest the billionaire agenda

Mobilizations will take place at over 1,000 "Workers Over Billionaires" rallies, demanding an end to wealth inequality amidst a deepening economic squeeze.

In a powerful display of collective action, working Americans are set to take to the streets this Labor Day with over 1,000 “Workers Over Billionaires” rallies and protests planned nationwide. The mobilizations, spearheaded by the Mayday Strong Coalition of national, state, and local labor and community organizations, will protest what organizers call a “billionaire agenda” that is suppressing the labor movement, attacking workers' rights, and burdening families across the country. The protests will weave together movements for worker justice, civil and human rights, immigrant rights, and healthcare access.

The mobilizations are a response to a Trump administration that is hostile to working people and labor unions while enriching the billionaires who fund his right-wing agenda. According to a report from the Center for Popular Democracy, President Trump’s Cabinet is the richest in history, with a combined net worth of over $460 billion. Trump and congressional Republicans have overseen tax breaks for the wealthiest, paid for by billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, and programs in public schools. Those cuts come as workers and their families also feel the sting at the grocery store as the price of beef, eggs, sugar, and other basics continues to rise.

“It’s hard to get ahead,” Dave Pinkham, an IBEW Local 520 journeyman electrician from Austin, Texas, told me. “I’m 40 years old, and I live paycheck to paycheck. In spite of all the volatility I’m OK because of the benefits I get through my union, but broadly speaking our members are struggling. When I look at someone with a spouse and three children, I don’t know how they’re doing it.” Pinkham worked for years in the food service industry but left after being disillusioned by what he said was the lack of respect and poor treatment given to workers.

In addition to cutting vital safety net programs, Trump and congressional Republicans also gutted collective bargaining rights for over a million federal workers and eliminated federal programs that protect workers, including massive cuts to worker health and safety programs that help health care workers, miners and fire fighters. Meanwhile, Trump has made threats to eliminate mail ballots and is supporting a redistricting power grab to ensure that his anti-worker and anti-democracy agenda continues.

The “Workers Over Billionaires” protests are not just about voicing grievances. They are about building a new, more vibrant workers movement. The data is encouraging: According to the Cornell School of Industrial Relations, there have been more combined strikes and labor actions this year than in the same period in 2024. The number of mobilizations across the country has also risen in scale and scope compared with 2017, with millions of Americans taking to the streets to protest the Trump agenda, including recent actions by Washington, D.C., residents that drove masked ICE agents and police from their neighborhood.

Labor Day actions across the country have already begun, including a Thursday march on Wall Street for economic and racial justice, and will continue through the weekend and into next week, culminating in a national rally in Washington DC on Sept. 6 to protest the military occupation and congressional divestment of the city, and demand that federal forces leave.

Beyond the Labor Day actions, IBEW member Pinkham urged workers to get back to the basics of organizing. “It’s hard work, but there are no short cuts. The power in organizing has to start from the ground up. Rank and file workers can be the base and muscle to ensure good politicians win and we build a stronger democracy.”

This Labor Day, the rallies and protests are a visible manifestation of this belief—a collective shout by working people to fight for a just society. To join a Labor Day action near you go to maydaystrong.org.

Maria Peralta is a strategic campaigns consultant with over 25 years of leadership experience in progressive politics, labor organizing, voting rights and democracy. Most recently, she served as national political director for the Service Employees International Union.

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