Nationwide May Day protests expected to pick up mantle of 'No Kings

Source: NPR

May 1, 2026 5:00 AM ET

By Scott Neuman

May Day demonstrations are expected to draw crowds across the country on Friday, with organizers calling for a boycott of work, school and shopping to protest the Trump administration's policies — and what activists describe as a billionaire takeover of government.

The "May Day Strong" protest events in various cities, ranging geographically from Boston to San Francisco, are meant to mark International Labor Day. They follow anti-Trump protests under the "No Kings" banner that organizers say have drawn millions of people nationwide.

Unlike the Labor Day celebrations in the U.S. each September, May 1 has traditionally been reserved as a day of protest. In the U.S., May Day goes back to the 19th-century movement to establish an 8-hour workday at a time when it wasn't unusual for Americans to work shifts of 12 hours or more. The shorter, standardized workday was first proposed in the early 1800s. But it wasn't until 1938 that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set a workweek of 44 hours, and then became 40 hours in 1940.

The National Education Association — the nation's largest labor union, with 3 million members — is a key organizer of Friday's protests. NEA President Becky Pringle told NPR that the message this year is that the country should be "focusing on workers over billionaires."



Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/01/nx-s1-5805805/may-day-protests-boycott-schools-trump