May Day with PSA
From AFT-MA: May 1st is International Workers Day.
It is a historic workers’ holiday commemorating the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago and the fight for the eight hour work day rooted in a simple truth: when working people move together, the rules can change.
From enslaved Africans breaking the confederacy with their general strike, to the creation of the eight hour work day, to the 2006 Day Without Immigrants, to Black-led campaigns that have unseated CEOs, to organized resistance to occupation in Minnesota, working people have shown how collective action shifts power. When we withhold our labor, our spending, and our consent, those at the top are forced to respond.
May Day 2026 builds on that legacy.
What is May Day?
We want our tax dollars to go to schools and housing, not to sending federal agents into our cities to attack and kill our neighbors. No one should live under ICE violence or militarized occupation, period. Our tax dollars should fund stability and care, not occupation and repression.
Democracy should work for working people, not billionaire interests.
While working families are stretched to the brink, billionaires and corporations are posting record profits and hoarding the wealth our labor creates. That money should be funding housing, schools, healthcare, and the public goods that make life livable.The Corporations and the ultra-rich have rigged the system and it won’t get un-rigged unless working people take big actions together. Corporations and the ultra-wealthy are rigging the rules to protect their power and shut the rest of us out. A government captured by billionaire interests will not solve a crisis that benefits them without us making it.
Organized people are the only force that has ever stopped authoritarian takeovers and changed the rules to work for working people. Those who profit from a rigged system will not voluntarily give it up. When working people move together, we can defend our communities, protect our rights, and force the government to put our families over their fortunes.
Why take action on May Day?
May Day Actions
Wear red!
Wear your PSA shirt or another piece of red clothing to show your solidarity!
Let your legislators know that you support Senate Bill S.1311 and House Bill H.2078 and they should, too.
Click here for example call scripts.
Call your State Reps!
Attend a 10-Minute Meeting
Get important updates and call your state
legislators with other union members.
Join Boston’s May Day rally alongside AFT-MA at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common from 4:30-6:30.
Rally Together!
Walk out together to celebrate one of our greatest victories in the labor movement – the eight hour work day!
End-of-Day Walk Outs
Central Library staff should meet Kathleen M. in the Courtyard at 5:05 for a 5:10 walk out.
May Day Call Scripts
Find your legislators: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
Hello Senator [NAME],
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m a constituent of yours located from [YOUR ADDRESS]. I am calling today in my capacity as a member of the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association, AFT local 4928. I’m calling in support of Senate Bill S.1311, which is currently with the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
Public employees deserve the right to strike when good faith attempts at negotiating with our employer stall out. During our last round of contract bargaining, the City of Boston purposefully dragged its feet and refused to come prepared to bargaining sessions. By the time we settled a new contract, we had been working under an expired one for 235 days -- that’s more than seven months! In total, we were bargaining our contract for more than 10 months because the City of Boston refused to take our contract seriously and knew we had no recourse available to us. The right to strike would give us a tool with which to hold our employer accountable. A strike would be an absolute last resort, but we deserve to have that option if we need to use it.
I ask that the Senator act to get this bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote and that they vote in favor of S.1311 for the good of all the public employees who serve the Commonwealth. Thank you.
[If you’d like to receive a response to your call, you can share your contact information via the staffer or your Senator’s voicemail.]
When calling your Senator:
Hello Representative [NAME],
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m a constituent of yours located from [YOUR ADDRESS]. I am calling today in my capacity as a member of the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association, AFT local 4928. I’m calling in support of Senate Bill S.1311, which is currently with the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
Public employees deserve the right to strike when good faith attempts at negotiating with our employer stall out. During our last round of contract bargaining, the City of Boston purposefully dragged its feet and refused to come prepared to bargaining sessions. By the time we settled a new contract, we had been working under an expired one for 235 days -- that’s more than seven months! In total, we were bargaining our contract for more than 10 months because the City of Boston refused to take our contract seriously and knew we had no recourse available to us. The right to strike would give us a tool with which to hold our employer accountable. A strike would be an absolute last resort, but we deserve to have that option if we need to use it.
I ask that the Senator act to get this bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote and that they vote in favor of S.1311 for the good of all the public employees who serve the Commonwealth. Thank you.
[If you’d like to receive a response to your call, you can share your contact information via the staffer or your Representative’s voicemail.]
When calling your Representative: