May 1st is a global celebration of the international labor movement and is recognized as a national holiday or formally celebrated in a majority of countries worldwide. Variously called International Workers’ Day, May Day, and International Labour Day, it is celebrated unofficially in many other countries across the globe — including the United States.

May Day has its early origins in the United States, in the late 19th century, with a pathbreaking and historical strike for the eight-hour day. International Workers’ Day commemorates the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. On May 1, 1886, Chicago unionists, reformers, socialists, anarchists, and ordinary workers convened as part of a long-term organizing campaign to make Chicago the center of the national movement for an eight-hour day.

During this extended period of struggle, on the evening of May 4, 1886, Chicago police attempted to disperse a peaceful assembly of workers in Haymarket Square when an unidentified assailant threw a bomb. The police reacted by firing on the workers, killing a number of protestors. Organizers of the demonstration were charged with murder — but no evidence was ever found linking them to the bombing. Four of them – known as the “Haymarket Martyrs” were hanged the following year. 

In 1889, the first congress of the Second International Workingmen’s Association, meeting in Paris on the centennial of the French Revolution, called for international labor demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. Then, in 1891, May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s Second Congress. In subsequent years, the working class in many countries sought to make May Day an official holiday, and their efforts largely succeeded. 

In the United States and Canada, however, the official holiday for workers is Labor Day in September. After the Haymarket Incident in Chicago, U.S. President Grover Cleveland “feared” that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 would become an opportunity to commemorate Haymarket and radical worker struggle. Thus, he pushed for U.S. Labor Day to be the first Monday in September.

In the United States, efforts to officially switch Labor Day back to the May 1 have been unsuccessful. However, a number of unions and locals — especially in urban areas with strong support for organized labor — have maintained a connection with labor traditions through their own unofficial observances on May 1.

Today, May 1, 2025, working people all over the world — including millions here in North America — will celebrate International Workers’ Day. As railroaders, we will celebrate the dignity of all workers, highlighting working conditions in our own industry. The widespread negative effects of Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) are now well known to millions of Americans. Rails have been sounding the alarm for years, educating the media, politicians and the public about unsafe and irresponsible practices of Class One billionaires.

Rails continue to fight against the dangers of long and heavy trains, the relentless profit-centered attempts to implement one-person crews, the lack of proper investment in maintenance and inspection, and the flight of workers from the rail industry due to eroding working conditions.

Further, in April 2024, RWU adopted a resolution in support of UAW’s President Fain calling for common contract expiration dates across industries to coordinate to a May Day (May 1) 2028 expiration.

Railroad Workers United has put the safety, well being, job quality, and voices of working railroaders at the center of its organizing since 2008. We amplify their voices today and keep the spirit of working class resistance, rank & file democracy, and good troublemaking alive in the rail industry.

Check the links below for May Day resources and take part in local May Day activities in your area as we celebrate OUR day — International Workers’ Day.
 
Solidarity Forever,
Railroad Workers United