{"id":295690,"date":"2026-05-01T22:48:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295690\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T22:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:48:26","slug":"may-day-protests-begin-across-bay-area-amid-calls-for-no-work-no-school-no-shopping-times-herald-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295690\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day protests begin across Bay Area amid calls for \u2018no work, no school, no shopping\u2019 \u2013 Times Herald Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters planned to gather across the Bay Area on Friday for a series of May Day rallies<\/a> aimed at boosting workers\u2019 rights and criticizing the rising cost of living in America under President Donald Trump, particularly as energy prices spike during the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of May Day protests were planned across the nation \u2014 including dozens in Northern California, where protests were planned in most major cities \u2014 amid a call by organizers for \u201cno work, no school, no shopping.\u201d Its goals appeared myriad, including voicing support for workers rights and opposing actions by ICE, the United States\u2019 war in Iran and the growing income inequality across the nation.<\/p>\n

At the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport late Friday morning, a swell of protesters chanted \u201cPeople power!\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019re May Day strong,\u201d while marching through the drop-of areas of for Delta Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Volaris. Many held signs opposing arms shipments to Israel through the Port of Oakland, while others read \u201cStop U.S. wars\u201d and \u201cTax the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the people \u2014 we\u2019re the ones who made them rich,\u201d said Gregory Slaughter, 73, of the nation\u2019s billionaire class. \u201cThey need to pay their fair share of taxes.\u201d He condemned Republican cuts to Medicare, which he relies on for his medication, and chastised Trump for leading a \u201cfascist government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that we\u2019re sending a message to the White House,\u201d Slaughter added. \u201cHe\u2019s caused nothing but chaos for his own people.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were joined by protesters across the world supporting May Day, which is recognized in many countries as a national holiday celebrating workers rights. Demonstrations were seen in Seoul, Sydney, Jakarta, Morocco, Turkey, France and the Philippines, the Associated Press reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump\u2019s war in the Middle East,\u201d said the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, according to the AP. \u201cToday\u2019s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locally, protesters planned to stage rallies around the San Francisco International Airport around midday Friday, while other protests were planned across numerous cities in the region, including San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, according to the website May Day Strong. It called for residents to \u201cflex our collective power in a tremendous day of action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some businesses \u2014 including the Grand Lake Theater near Lake Merritt in Oakland \u2014 planned to remain closed for the day, in solidarity with protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s power in numbers, and if we come together and organize, we can put people and workers over billionaires,\u201d said Grace Martinez, deputy director of California Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, who planned to protest at Oakland\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n

The May Day demonstrations come amid ever-widening shows of discontent over Trump\u2019s second term in office, including his hollowing out of the federal workforce and a deadly immigration crackdown. More recently, protesters have decried his decision to go to war with Iran, which has caused average gas prices to surge toward and in some cases past $6 a gallon across the state.<\/p>\n

Organizers claimed roughly 8 million people showed out<\/a> across the nation in late March for the third round of \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests, which aimed to push back against what they characterized as the Trump administration\u2019s authoritarian policies. Some 136,000 people took to the streets at more than 50 rallies across the Bay Area \u2014 a dip from protests in June 2025 and October 2025, which drew crowds of 140,000 and 220,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

Check back for updates to this developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters planned to gather across the Bay Area on Friday for a series of May Day rallies aimed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[387,7,8,181,23,205,992,2582,100,993,266,143,145,144,13,2720,3627],"class_list":["post-295690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-marin-county","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics","tag-solano-county","tag-vallejo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}