Might Day was by no means only a celebration, a rally, or a march. It was additionally a day for staff to point out their energy. And it may be once more.
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United Auto Staff President Shawn Fain throughout a “Preventing Oligarchy: The place We Go From Right here” occasion Saturday, March 8, 2025, at Lincoln Excessive College in Warren, Michigan.
(Jose Juarez / AP)
100 and thirty-five years in the past at this time, the American Federation of Labor made a daring proclamation. On Might 1, 1890—Might Day—staff throughout the nation would strike for a brand new, radical demand. This demand would have an effect on staff throughout society, and internationally, and rework each day life for hundreds of thousands of individuals. That radical demand? The eight-hour workday.
Now synonymous with being a working stiff, the “9-to-5” schedule was as soon as such an explosive idea that it provoked riots, mass demonstrations, and even the execution of union organizers.
So how did the eight-hour day go from being an inconceivable concept to only widespread sense? The reply lies in Might Day.
After the Haymarket affair of 1886, commerce unionists noticed that profitable the precise to an eight-hour day was going to take an enormous push from staff in every single place. Nobody union, office, or metropolis was going to have the ability to win it on their very own.
Present Challenge
And staff internationally heeded the decision. Yearly, 1000’s, after which hundreds of thousands, of staff celebrated Might 1st as Worldwide Staff Day. Many international locations finally established it as a nationwide vacation. The Catholic Church adopted it within the Fifties, with St. Joseph the Employee as its patron saint.
However Might Day was by no means only a celebration, a rally, or a march. It was additionally a day for strikes—for financial motion on the office and past that will maintain company America in verify, and maintain staff’ strike muscle robust.
Practically 150 years later, the American working class is studying the lesson of Might Day once more. And the UAW is main the combat to revive it.
In 2023, tens of 1000’s of autoworkers on the Massive Three went on strike. They took on Ford, Basic Motors, and Stellantis like by no means earlier than, hitting all three firms directly, throughout the nation, and making daring, loud calls for, not only for autoworkers however for the entire working class.
The Nice Recession and the auto disaster had compelled autoworkers to make large sacrifices to save lots of the trade. Our wages had been slashed. Crops had been closed. Value-of-living changes vanished. And anybody employed after 2007 had no pension or retiree healthcare.
We gained again extra in 2023 than we had in any contract in our lifetimes. However the Massive Three wouldn’t budge on one of many greatest points autoworkers face on this nation: retirement safety.
The automakers mentioned their Wall Avenue masters wouldn’t enable it. Regardless of making 1 / 4 of a trillion in earnings within the final decade, Wall Avenue didn’t need the long-term legal responsibility on the books. In spite of everything, each penny put aside for a pension is a penny that may’t be spent on inventory buybacks, dividends, or government compensation.
So we knew if we wished to win again retirement safety for autoworkers, it was going to take an even bigger combat.
We set our subsequent contract expiration on the Massive Three for Might 1, 2028. Worldwide Staff Day. And we referred to as on unions throughout the nation to do the identical, and prepare for an even bigger strike than any of us had ever seen.
Similar to those that got here earlier than us, we knew we would have liked one large deadline for company America to be compelled to behave. It wasn’t sufficient to close down the Massive Three. We wanted to leverage our energy as a united working class—not one union, not one trade—if we wished to win our calls for.
In spite of everything, it’s not nearly a pension and retiree healthcare for Massive Three autoworkers. We’re in a retirement disaster on this nation, with over 4 million Individuals hitting retirement age annually, whereas a majority have little to no retirement financial savings. In 1980, 60 p.c of private-sector staff had some type of pension. Right this moment, that quantity sits round 4 p.c.
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This yr, on Might 1, greater than 2,000 UAW members who make submarines for Basic Dynamics in Connecticut are gearing up for his or her first potential strike in 40 years. One in all their core calls for? Pensions for all.
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As a result of we all know that if we need to transfer Wall Avenue, if we need to transfer company America, and if we need to transfer the working class to motion, we have to unite in a typical trigger. For our widespread points. At a typical time.
And identical to the eight-hour workday, on Might Day we search to make use of the ability of our labor to make our radical demand—a good lifestyle for the working class—widespread sense.
The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration reaches new lows every week.
Trump’s catastrophic “Liberation Day” has wreaked havoc on the world financial system and arrange one more constitutional disaster at residence. Plainclothes officers proceed to abduct college college students off the streets. So-called “enemy aliens” are flown overseas to a mega jail in opposition to the orders of the courts. And Signalgate guarantees to be the primary of many incompetence scandals that expose the brutal violence on the core of the American empire.
At a time when elite universities, highly effective regulation companies, and influential media retailers are capitulating to Trump’s intimidation, The Nation is extra decided than ever earlier than to carry the highly effective to account.
In simply the final month, we’ve printed reporting on how Trump outsources his mass deportation agenda to different international locations, uncovered the administration’s attraction to obscure legal guidelines to hold out its repressive agenda, and amplified the voices of courageous pupil activists focused by universities.
We additionally proceed to inform the tales of those that combat again in opposition to Trump and Musk, whether or not on the streets in rising protest actions, on the town halls throughout the nation, or in crucial state elections—like Wisconsin’s current state Supreme Court docket race—that present a mannequin for resisting Trumpism and show that Musk can’t purchase our democracy.
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In solidarity,
The Editors
The Nation
Shawn Fain
Shawn Fain is the president of the United Auto Staff.
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