On May 1, people across the globe took to the streets to celebrate International Workers Day and champion causes to support unions and working people. In Northern California and across the country, May Day celebrations called for the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will empower workers to exercise our freedom to organize and negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

Events in San Francisco and Sacramento also focused on combatting the triple threat of rising income inequality, racial injustice, and COVID-19, all of which have hit working families the hardest. Many of our members have continued to report to work on the frontlines of this pandemic, risking their health and safety, to care for and support our communities.

“I do hope it changes some of the thinking, the mentality, to say that we’re not just essential through the pandemic. We were essential before, we’re essential through the pandemic and we’ll be essential after,” Joseph Bryant, President of SEIU Local 1021, told CBS San Francisco.

Saturday’s marches and rallies also called for racial and immigrant justice, as #StopAsianHate, #BlackLivesMatter, and signs calling for pathways to citizenship were prominently featured throughout the march. After marching from the Embarcadero to Civic Center, rallygoers heard speeches from Dr. Angela Davis, former Black panther and professor at UCSC, Eddie Zheng, founder of New Breath Foundation and Civil Rights and Stop Asian Hate Advocate, and Tefere Gebre, the Executive Vice President of AFL-CIO.

In Sacramento, we celebrated International Workers Day with a caravan to the State Capitol with the Sacramento Central Labor Council, fast-food workers, and community allies. Once there, we rallied in support of the Fight for $15 and the FAST Recovery Act, the PRO Act, and the rights of farmworkers around the world.

Check out photos from the San Francisco and Sacramento celebrations on Facebook.