Press Conference: Labor And Community Groups Unite For May Day Protests
Photos: YouTube Screenshots|Facebook A coalition of labor and community organizations will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to call for protests to draw attention to the plight of working people in New Jersey and the rest of the country. The press conference to discuss May Day protests in Newark and other parts of the state will take place Wednesday, April 22, 2026, 11:00am at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market Street, Newark, NJ. (Entrance for the church parking lot is at 74 Hartford Street). The purpose of the press conference is to announce support for and urge participation in protests that will take place on May 1, 2026 which is also observed as May Day. These protests will demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s domestic and foreign policies that adversely affect working people. The press conference is being hosted by the People’s Organization For Progress, Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union RWDSU UFCW AFL-CIO, the New Jersey AFL-CIO, Painters Union IUPAT DC 21, New Jersey Education Association, American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, 32BJ SEIU, Laborers’ International Union of North America Eastern Region, 1199J AFSCME, Essex West Hudson Labor Council, I.U.O.E Local 68, ILA Local 1233, Food & Water Watch, Empower NJ, Climate Revolution Action Network, Ironbound Community Corporation and the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee. Speakers at the press conference will include representatives of the hosting organizations including Charles Hall, President, Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union RWDSU UFCW AFL-CIO, Steve Beatty, President, New Jersey Education Association, John Marino, IUPAT DC 21, Jennifer S. Higgins, President, American Federation of Teachers and Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress. Representatives of other labor and community groups are also expected to speak. On Friday, May 1st the coalition will have a May Day rally and march. The rally will start 11:00 am at the Lincoln Statue, 12 Springfield Avenue in Newark. A march to the federal building at 970 Broad Street after the rally is also planned. “We are having this rally to draw attention to the economic needs of working people, poor people, and the middle class,” Hamm stated. “May Day is an international observance. It is a day when workers around the world call for unity and raise their demands for a better life. We felt it was important to add our protest to those demanding economic justice for working people at home and abroad,” Hamm said. Hamm noted that the press conference will not only call for participation in the protest that the coalition is having in Newark but will urge people to participate in all the May Day activities being held around the state. “While the general call for May Day is for no work, no school, and no shopping it must be noted that there will be a wide variety of protests and other activities taking place at different times and places and focusing on different issues,” he said. Some of the coalition’s May Day demands include increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15.00 per hour, passage of legislation to facilitate unionization, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, equal pay for equal work. Other demands include fair contracts, the establishment of a living wage in the U.S., paid sick leave, universal child care, Medicare For All, free college, elimination of student debt, and a national federal jobs program to eliminate unemployment. In addition the coalition is demanding an end to the war in Iran, cutting military spending, restoration of the cuts in social programs, rehiring federal workers that have lost their jobs, rescinding tax cuts for billionaires, and increased federal funding for public education. For more information about today’s rally please call People’s Organization for Progress at 973 801-0001.
Black News 
Photos: YouTube Screenshots|Facebook
A coalition of labor and community organizations will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to call for protests to draw attention to the plight of working people in New Jersey and the rest of the country.
The press conference to discuss May Day protests in Newark and other parts of the state will take place Wednesday, April 22, 2026, 11:00am at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market Street, Newark, NJ. (Entrance for the church parking lot is at 74 Hartford Street).
The purpose of the press conference is to announce support for and urge participation in protests that will take place on May 1, 2026 which is also observed as May Day. These protests will demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s domestic and foreign policies that adversely affect working people.
The press conference is being hosted by the People’s Organization For Progress, Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union RWDSU UFCW AFL-CIO, the New Jersey AFL-CIO, Painters Union IUPAT DC 21, New Jersey Education Association, American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, 32BJ SEIU, Laborers’ International Union of North America Eastern Region, 1199J AFSCME, Essex West Hudson Labor Council, I.U.O.E Local 68, ILA Local 1233, Food & Water Watch, Empower NJ, Climate Revolution Action Network, Ironbound Community Corporation and the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee.
Speakers at the press conference will include representatives of the hosting organizations including Charles Hall, President, Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union RWDSU UFCW AFL-CIO, Steve Beatty, President, New Jersey Education Association, John Marino, IUPAT DC 21, Jennifer S. Higgins, President, American Federation of Teachers and Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress. Representatives of other labor and community groups are also expected to speak.
On Friday, May 1st the coalition will have a May Day rally and march. The rally will start 11:00 am at the Lincoln Statue, 12 Springfield Avenue in Newark. A march to the federal building at 970 Broad Street after the rally is also planned.
“We are having this rally to draw attention to the economic needs of working people, poor people, and the middle class,” Hamm stated.
“May Day is an international observance. It is a day when workers around the world call for unity and raise their demands for a better life. We felt it was important to add our protest to those demanding economic justice for working people at home and abroad,” Hamm said.
Hamm noted that the press conference will not only call for participation in the protest that the coalition is having in Newark but will urge people to participate in all the May Day activities being held around the state.
“While the general call for May Day is for no work, no school, and no shopping it must be noted that there will be a wide variety of protests and other activities taking place at different times and places and focusing on different issues,” he said.
Some of the coalition’s May Day demands include increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15.00 per hour, passage of legislation to facilitate unionization, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, equal pay for equal work.
Other demands include fair contracts, the establishment of a living wage in the U.S., paid sick leave, universal child care, Medicare For All, free college, elimination of student debt, and a national federal jobs program to eliminate unemployment.
In addition the coalition is demanding an end to the war in Iran, cutting military spending, restoration of the cuts in social programs, rehiring federal workers that have lost their jobs, rescinding tax cuts for billionaires, and increased federal funding for public education.
For more information about today’s rally please call People’s Organization for Progress at 973 801-0001.
