This May Day, we honor a simple truth: every worker deserves respect and dignity. Whether you pick up our trash, keep our libraries open, or protect public safety, your work is essential — and your rights are non-negotiable.
The labor movement has always fought for more than wages. It has fought for the right to fair treatment, a voice in decisions that shape your life, and conditions that honor your dignity. On this day, we remember that the fight for labor rights is inseparable from the fight for democracy itself.
May Day’s roots stretch back to 1886, when workers in Chicago led a nationwide movement demanding the eight-hour workday. They faced brutal repression. Some gave their lives. Their courage changed history and reminds us that rights are never simply given; they are won by ordinary people standing together.
Here in San Diego, that spirit of solidarity is alive and urgent. Working people are being squeezed harder than ever, even as the wealthiest reap record profits. President Trump, Elon Musk, and their corporate supporters are actively working to weaken workers’ ability to organize and dismantle the public sector. They know what history teaches: when working people unite, they become a force that billionaires and demagogues cannot control.
We see this fight both nationally and here at home.
When Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a proud apprentice of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Local 100, was unlawfully detained and abandoned in a foreign torture dungeon, his union stepped up. They are fighting not just for their union brother, but for the principle that an attack on one person’s Constitutional rights is an attack on all of our rights. His case is a stark reminder that the struggle for dignity is not abstract — it is happening every day, in every workplace, in every community.
And it’s not limited to one worker or one industry.
We see it when librarians and park and recreation staff advocate for safe, fully staffed community spaces. We see it when sanitation workers demand the respect their essential work deserves. We see it when public safety workers, healthcare workers, and the thousands of hospitality workers who power our tourism economy fight for the basic right to live with dignity in the city they serve.
Too often, working people are presented with a false choice: treat workers with dignity, or sacrifice quality services.
That is a lie.
We live in one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The problem is not scarcity. The problem is that those with the most are not paying their fair share.
Respecting workers and delivering strong public services go hand-in-hand. When we invest in workers we invest in a San Diego that is stronger, fairer, and more resilient.
This May Day, let’s recommit to that truth by standing together.
Let’s stand with the workers who make San Diego run — the public sector workers, hospitality workers, healthcare heroes, grocery workers, tradespeople — all of them.
Let’s reject the attacks on workers, whether they come from Trump and Musk or from corporations squeezing employees into poverty and out of our communities.
Let’s demand a city where everyone — no matter their job — is treated with dignity, respect, and fairness.
Solidarity cannot be a slogan. It must be a commitment.
It’s a promise that when one of us is under attack, all of us stand up. It’s a belief that the strength of a community is measured not by how it treats the powerful, but by how it treats the people who do the work every day.
As frightening as this moment is for so many, the history of May Day shows us a way through to a brighter future. It starts with everyday working people standing together.
Sean Elo-Rivera represents San Diego’s Ninth Council District and served three terms as City Council President.
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