FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, May 1, 2026
CONTACT: Unai Montes, u.montes@peoplesaction.org (Bilingual) 310-962-7369
Thousands of events are taking place on May 1st throughout the United States. They all demand immediate solutions to the cost-of-living crisis for citizens and non-citizens alike.
Washington, D.C. – People’s Action and May Day Strong, a coalition of well over 500 labor and community organizations, are supporting 4,000 events taking place across all fifty states under the banner of building an economy that works for all of us and prioritizes “workers over billionaires.”
“Our families come first – not the greed of billionaires,” People’s Action Executive Director Sulma Arias said. “Food, housing, health care – all our basic needs – are unaffordable because billionaires have picked our pockets and rigged the system. May Day is our day to demand immediate solutions to the cost-of-living crisis for the working families who work shoulder to shoulder to try and support their families.”
Recent polls show that high cost of living remains the top financial worry for Americans, with a record number reporting their financial situation is getting worse. Major concerns include soaring grocery (62%), gas (60%), and housing costs (52%), causing many to cut back on spending, and make impossible choices as they are unable to meet their basic needs.
- 55% of Americans feel their financial situation is deteriorating, the largest majority in the 25-year period that the survey has noted the expansion of this sentiment.
- Nearly 8 in 10 voters are altering spending habits, such as reducing out-of-home entertainment (6 in 10) and cutting back on travel due to gas/food prices.
- 64% of adults are worried about affording health care – and this number is expected to grow as the cuts to health care in the 2026 OBBBA take effect in 2027.
- Energy costs are a major concern for the highest number of Americans since the 2008 Great Recession, matching housing costs in concern – and this number is expected to grow as data center demands contribute to higher energy bills everywhere.
- 49% of families lack the resources to cover basic essential expenses – and this number is expected to grow as new affordability data for 2026 comes in.
- High costs have caused record-low approval ratings, with 41% of voters disapproving of the current administration’s handling of the cost of living.
Whether rural, urban, or suburban, working families want our government to invest in health care, food, childcare, clean energy, and safe elections. Across races, genders, and generations we know that there is more than enough for all of us to thrive if greedy corporations and CEOs pay what they owe. People’s Action national network affiliates are organizing working class neighbors across differences to build power together so that our federal, state, and local officials deliver an affordability agenda rooted in dignity, not policies built on exclusion and fear.
On May Day our grassroots, community-based, member-driven organizations are showing up and fighting for the country we deserve, as part of the May Day Strong coalition, and in conjunction with community partners on the ground, in places like:
- Charleston, West Virginia — West Virginia Citizen Action Group (WVCAG) members will peacefully march through downtown playing drums, horns, and banging on pots and pans to remind decision-makers that working families make, while CEOs and corporations take. (Press contact: ryan@wvcag.org)
- Concord, New Hampshire – New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM) and Rights & Democracy (RAD) members are gathering peaceably in City Plaza to call on state legislators to act on affordability, the cost of college, gun safety – HB 1793 a.k.a. the “campus carry bill” – and climate action. (Press contact: grace@nhyouthmovement.org).
- Los Angeles, California – Ground Game LA members will peacefully march from MacArthur Park and convene afterward to urge L.A.’s housing authority to stop federally ordered evictions. (Press contact: tabatha@groundgamela.org).
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Citizen Action Wisconsin members will call on state legislators to deliver living wage legislation with a $20 minimum wage by May Day 2027 before marching to the federal building. (Press contact: matt.brusky@citizenactionwi.org).
- New York – Citizen Action of New York (CANY) members are gathering peaceably at the Federal Building in New York City to demand a better future for all workers, including those targeted by scapegoaters and profiteers. Across upstate New York – in Utica, Binghamton, Syracuse and Rochester – Empire staters are standing up to the billionaires threatening our rights and freedoms. (Press contact: awilliams@citizenactionny.org)
- Phoenix, Arizona – Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) members are building collective community power at Margaret T. Hance Park to bring costs down and keep families together because real change comes from organized people, not wealthy elites. (Press contact: cesarf@luchaaz.org).
- Raleigh, North Carolina – Down Home North Carolina members organized buses from across the state to the state capitol to fight for working families and public school students who are the most underfunded in the US. (Press contact: tai@downhomenc.org).
In addition, affiliates from our sister organization, People’s Action Institute, are taking numerous nonpartisan, nonviolent public actions, including:
- Austin, Texas – Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-TX) and Workers Defense members are launching a Billionaire Backers of Hate campaign and hostingBilliahosting a rally outside of Trilogy Software, an Austin-based company founded by tech billionaire and White House ally Joe Liemandt. (Press contact: Paulette@vocal-tx.org).
- Chicago, Illinois – ONE Northside members will both gather at Union Park for a day of action and call on Target to sever ties with ICE through a nonviolent, youth-led action. (Press contact: mrowley@onenorthside.org).
- Denver, Colorado – Center for Health Progress members are urging state legislators to close corporate tax loopholes to raise money for working families through the family affordability tax credit. (Press contact: joe.sammen@centerforhealthprogress.org).
- Las Vegas, Nevada – Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) members are building collective community power to lower housing, health care, and utility bill costs and win protections for immigrant workers and their families. (Press contact: hfong@planevada.org).
- New York City – Members of Community Voices Heard (CVH), Our Bronx, and Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) joined May Day Strong NYC to support May Day activities calling on Amazon to cut ties with ICE and the big NYC rally hosted by the NYC CLC, AFL-CIO and NYIC. (Press contact: zoe@cvhaction.org, edward@ourbronx.org, mariah@vocal-us.org).
- St Louis, Missouri – Missouri Jobs with Justice (MOJWJ) members will lead an economic boycott of Amazon, Enterprise, Kaldi’s Coffee, the Board of Police Commissioners, Starbucks, and Target, while demanding investment in working families from the state legislature. (Press contact: caitlyn@mojwj.org).
Funneling wealth upward through tax breaks and backroom deals isn’t helping anyone. Blank checks written to pay for the War in Iran mean maternity wards, emergency rooms, and entire hospitals close. Blank checks to ICE mean seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans lose housing support. Big tech is making everything more expensive. Yet the White House and Congress are giving them our public dollars through subsidies, contracts, and tax breaks, just so they can turn around and drive up our monthly power bills and eliminate our jobs.
Americans need solutions to the cost of living crisis now. Voters demand more accountability and less corporate power. Working families want and deserve representatives who are laser focused on the cost of living and the right of every American to have just as much of a voice in our economy and our democracy as any billionaire.
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About People’s Action:
People’s Action is a proud national network of 40 member-based, power-building organizations in 29 states with more than a million members and tens of thousands of national volunteers, united in the work of building a bigger “we.” We are from every background, speak many languages, and live in small towns, cities and rural areas. We are all of us!