Hundreds of people at Philadelphia City Hall participated late Friday afternoon in a “Workers Over Billionaires” May Day rally and planned to march celebrating and promoting labor unions and progressive agendas.
Around 4:30 p.m., a large crowd gathered in front of the towering cast iron gates of City Hall. People dressed as Gritty, Soviet-era communist rebels in berets, Trump in a tutu, and more cheered as others held signs scrawled with anti-billionaire sentiments.
Daniel P. Bauder, president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, said in a preview statement that “the history of May Day reminds us that for hundreds of years, the struggles of the working class and immigrants have been linked together, with the bosses doing everything they can to keep us divided.”
On Friday morning, union leaders representing city teachers, hospitality workers, security personnel, and more gathered in front of Jefferson Tower on Market Street to call for better wages, protections, and public services in honor of May Day, also known around the world as International Workers’ Day.
The group laid out a number of requests for city, state and federal officials including more funding for public education, that all city development be undertaken by union labor and higher minimum wages.
The leaders from unions including International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Association of University Professors and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spoke about how their workers don’t make enough money to support their families while the wealthy who run the businesses and government entities they work for seem to continue getting richer.
“Everything we need is already here but every day it is stolen from a system that prioritizes profits over people,” said April Giggetts, president of AFSCME District Council 47.
“While they fly around in their private jets we can hardly afford gas. While they start wars, we struggle to receive basic healthcare,” Giggetts said.
Partway through the press conference, during which union leaders enumerated the ways in which tech and tech leaders were working against the ability of the working class to flourish, an Uber Eats delivery robot slowly navigated its way through the center of the makeshift staging area on Market Street.
“Here comes somebody to steal somebody’s job,” said Bauder, the Philadelphia AFL-CIO president, not shying away, looking the robot directly in its pixelated eyes as it rolled past.