{"id":298386,"date":"2026-05-03T22:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/298386\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T22:43:40","slug":"oakland-may-day-rally-draws-fierce-support-for-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/298386\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland May Day Rally Draws Fierce Support for Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif.\u2014 They marched holding up signs for workers\u2019 and immigrants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

They protested the nationwide burgeoning of food prices, forcing millions to choose between feeding their families or paying for health insurance.<\/p>\n

They spoke out against the rise in gas prices and the wars Trump has begun without congressional approval.<\/p>\n

Affordability a key issue<\/p>\n

An estimated 1,500 people of various religious and political stripes assembled at the Fruitvale Plaza here shortly after noon May 1 to let people know that they did not like the rapidly swelling billionaire class under President Trump, nor his administration\u2019s policies on climate change and the environment. While the rich grow richer, they said, too many do not know where or when their next meal is coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to choose between paying my health insurance and feeding my children,\u201d said 27-year-old Berkeley resident Leana, a protestor and a mother of three children all under 6. (She only give her first name.) \u201cGuess what I chose?\u201d She wore a sign that simply said, \u201cF \u2014\u00a0 Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, some 20 Bay Area groups expressed their solidarity with workers\u2019 rights. One group condemned Oakland officials for giving the nod to building a coal export terminal in West Oakland, which will likely spew coal dust into working class neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Retired union worker Richard Bolecek. (Viji Sundaram photo for ACoM)<\/p>\n

A few marchers used bugle horns to amplify how they felt. \u201cWe the People, Have the Power,\u201d was one message that rang out across Fruitvale Plaza.<\/p>\n

Marchers denounce planned ICE detention center<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s use of ICE personnel to arrest immigrant workers has fanned anger and fear among the public. ICE agents fatally shot two people in Minnesota earlier this year. That was on display at the protests where signs condemned ICE with messages including, \u201cICE Out of Our Schools and Towns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s rights activists expressed their fear that the Trump administration would carry out its plans to reopen a federal facility in the city of Dublin that once served as a women\u2019s prison.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, the federal government shut down the notorious facility, after<\/a> years of complaints from its inmates of its toxic sexualized culture and unsanitary living conditions. Inmates dubbed the prison a \u201crape club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Bureau of Prisons at the time of the settlement agreed with 103 of its inmates who sued for $115 million, it has in recent months been looking to repurpose the facility as an expanded immigration detention center, causing former inmates and the general public to protest. At the May Day demonstrations, dozens of them were on hand to pressure the Trump administration to keep the facility shut permanently.<\/p>\n

Wearing a black T-shirt that said at the back \u201cNo More US Concentration Camps,\u201d Berkeley resident Marla Kamiya stood with members of Indivisible Tri-Valley to show her solidarity with the Dublin protestors.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that just earlier that day, the Bureau of Prisons published an environmental assessment of the facility that showed that it was unfit for housing people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Viji Sundaram photo for ACoM)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, they want to reopen the place,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

California is home to eight of the nation\u2019s 20 privately-run immigrant detention centers. <\/p>\n

\u2018Workers over billionaires\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI am protesting the dismantling of democracy and the illegal wars we have been forced to fight\u201d by Trump, said Oakland resident Richard Bolecek, a retired union member who wore a sign across his shoulder that said \u201cWorkers Over Billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did that mean he would not consider voting for California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager who touts his longtime financial support of many a candidate over the airwaves?<\/p>\n

Steyer has drawn criticism from political groups for supporting Trump\u2019s business ventures in the past. But \u201cI still might support Steyer because he believes in heavily taxing billionaires,\u201d Bolecek said. <\/p>\n

Oakland was among hundreds of cities and towns nationwide that held May Day rallies to show support for workers and immigrants. <\/p>\n

In San Francisco, around 25 people, including a state senator including several supervisors were arrested outside SFO\u2019s international terminal as they protested over wages and working conditions.<\/p>\n

SEIU United Service Workers West Vice President Sanjay Garla reportedly confirmed that all 25 arrests were planned acts of civil disobedience. Connie Chan, who\u2019s hoping to succeed Nancy Pelosi in Congress, was among the protestors.<\/p>\n

Viji Sundaram is an independent journalist in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif.\u2014 They marched holding up signs for workers\u2019 and immigrants\u2019 rights. They protested the nationwide burgeoning of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[38443,14044,2871,103347,143,145,144,1519,2718],"class_list":["post-298386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-detentions","tag-economic-inequality","tag-ice","tag-may-day","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-trump","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298386","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=298386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}