The sun beat down with an unusual ferocity for San Francisco, but spirits were high and the crowd was boisterous at the San Francisco Labor Day rally and march on Monday, September 1. The biggest protest event in the City since the No Kings rally this June, the event drew thousands of union members and community members who wanted to show a strong resistance to the illegal and immoral actions of the presidential administration and its enablers in Congress.

“Today is not a day for barbecues and picnics, it’s not a day for shopping. It’s a day to tell billionaires they suck,” SEIU 1021 Vice President of Organizing Jennifer Esteen told the crowd from the flatbed truck. “Today is the day we control and own our own labor. Labor Day is for working people. We need to own the profits we create and reject billionaires and bosses who exploit, undermine, and take advantage of us workers.

“Here in San Francisco, we ended up with a billionaire mayor. Let us tell the billionaire mayor we will not tolerate layoffs or cuts to public services. We all ride the bus. We like being able to have clean streets. Workers generate profits. But who’s keeping the profits? The billionaires.

“We take care of each other and we have to protect each other. When we hear about ICE coming after folks, what are we going to do to protect our neighbors? We are going to show up. Donald Trump and the people who wrote Project 2025 are not stopping. Dig in your heels, ten toes down, and protect one another. We are all working people and we are equal. Billionaires suck and they will try to divide us.” 

President Theresa Rutherford was also among the members marching behind the SEIU 1021 banner from the 16th and Mission BART station to Dolores Park on Monday. “This is a diverse crowd that is different from the norm,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Usually it’s just union folk. This is community, nonprofits, union. … It’s everyone now realizing we are operating under a fascist regime.”

San Francisco’s march and rally were just one of over 1,000 Labor Day actions happening across the nation under the banner of the “MayDay Strong” coalition protesting the billionaire-funded attack on public services, worker rights, and takeover of our democracy. The next big action is scheduled for October 18. Will you be there?