Mayor Wu, top labor leaders, workers from across Boston take to the streets to protest corporate greed, reckless developers at annual May Day rally

Mayor Wu, top labor leaders, workers from across Boston take to the streets to protest corporate greed, reckless developers at annual May Day rally

BOSTON – Hundreds of tradespeople, labor leaders, elected officials, and allies rallied today in honor of May Day, calling for the protection of workers’ rights, safe working conditions on jobsites, and chastising reckless developers who exploit workers. 

“These irresponsible developers come to Boston only aiming to take down the city we built,” said Chaton Green, Business Agent for the Greater Boston Building Trades Union. “They look at a project and ask one thing: ‘How much can we profit?’ They do not ask, ‘How well can we treat our workers?’ And they certainly do not ask, ‘How can this project strengthen our community?'”

Mayor Wu joined the rally and touted recent project labor agreements (PLAs) on major projects, as well as job training and certification programs at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School.

“Boston needs a strong, safe, active, and secure working middle class,” Mayor Wu said. “This May Day, let’s stand together. Every right we’ve won has happened by working people standing together.”

Rep. Marjorie Decker, a Cambridge Democrat, called on companies to provide better health benefits and affordable child care and to use union labor on building projects.

“I’m proud to fight with you,” Decker said. “We fight for PLAs. We fight for the right to organize for our public sector and our private sector. If we want to fight poverty, labor is the answer.”

Speaking from a tractor-trailer adorned with pro-labor signage outside 100 Federal St., organizers chastised the failure of the federal government to fairly tax corporations and billionaires and blasted developers using non-union contractors. A landmark 2021 report found that union projects were 19% less likely to have health and safety violations and had an average of 34% fewer violations compared to nonunion projects.

Lou Antonellis, Business Manager and Financial Secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, praised elected officials fighting alongside the labor movement.

“We fight for good jobs that reward hard work with fair wages and benefits for union families,” Antonellis said. 

Rodrigo Badaro, Business Representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 in Boston, added: “We are here to fight for cities, for communities, for our future. We are here fighting today against corporate greed, against reckless development, and against the people who are looking to destroy the middle class. We will not accept that.”

The event was held to recognize May Day, when more than half a million workers across the United States went on strike 140 years ago to demand normal working hours enjoyed by millions of Americans today. The rally by members of the building trades and supporters was a celebration of Boston’s union solidarity as well as a call to protect workers’ rights, demand fair wages and benefits, and reject corporate greed and reckless development. The rally was one of several happening across the region as part of a wave of worker-led May Day actions.