DURHAM MAY DAY 2024

Wednesday, May 1 | 5pm

Gather at CCB Plaza (201 Corcoran St) for a Rally + March

Join workers and the community across Durham and the Triangle for a demonstration on May Day, International Workers Day, as we unite to demand:

• $25/hour for city, service, and all workers!
• Affordable housing now!
• Make Duke pay their fair share to fund worker and community needs!
• Solidarity with the people of Palestine. Ceasefire now. Divest from Israel! Money for people’s needs, not for war and genocide!

Attacks on workers’ standard of living and working conditions have intensified. During the COVID-19 pandemic, employers made record profits at our collective expense. Never have we been more alienated from each other, ourselves, and the fruits of our labor. Our labor continues to be stolen and used to fund increasingly brutal police and military forces across the planet, all while the costs of living climbs higher and higher. May Day reminds us that these battles can be fought and won; there is power in solidarity with your fellow workers!

The cost of everything - housing, food, gas, healthcare, childcare and more - continues to skyrocket, and the companies we work for post record profits, yet our wages remain the same.

North Carolina remains number one in the country - three years in a row - for being the worst state for workers! And the city of Durham has the highest eviction rate in the State!

All workers deserve at least $25 per hour. The City of Durham must do more to limit housing costs; the City must put community needs ahead of developers’ profits.

Duke University, the county’s largest employer with one of the largest university endowments in the country at around $12 billion dollars, benefits tremendously from the labor of city workers, owns a large amount of property in the city, yet contributes $0 per year in taxes. Increasingly, workers and the community are calling on Duke to pay their fair share and contribute at least $20 million per year in payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) to the city and the county to fund higher wages for city workers, increase affordable housing, schools and fund other vital public services.

But workers are rising! More workers, here and across the South, are stepping forward to organize and build power on the job. We are all inspired by the fights led by Durham city and school workers, Duke graduate workers, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, REI workers, Waffle House workers, dollar store workers, service workers, healthcare workers, and the many others coming together to fight back. In response, the politicians, doing the bidding of the bosses, are trying to implement new laws to make it even harder to organize. These same politicians are also whipping up racist hysteria against migrant workers, in an attempt to break our unity and scapegoat these workers and their families for the economic hardships the politicians themselves are designing.

Organizing is our right. Solidarity is our greatest weapon. We say no to these attempts to divide us and to restrict our ability to build power. We call for the repeal of the Jim Crow era ban on collective bargaining for public workers and an end to racist right to work laws. We need power on the job and solidarity on the shop floor to fight for fair schedules, an end to wage theft, and an end to sexual harassment. With built workers’ power, we aim to get our fair share of the tremendous wealth our labor produces.

The United States is the richest country in the world, yet rather than using our wealth to provide housing, healthcare, education, and other basic needs, the government spends close to $1 trillion per year towards the military. Since Israel launched its genocidal bombardment against the people of Palestine more than six months ago, the U.S. government has sent many billions of dollars in military equipment and weapons, and provided political and other support for the massacre. Workers here join the global movement in solidarity with Palestine and say: Ceasefire now! Divest from Israel. End the war economy!

All these struggles are interconnected, and we are stronger together. A better life for everyone is possible! Join your fellow workers and community members across Durham and the Triangle for a demonstration on May Day, International Workers Day, at 5pm at CCB Plaza in downtown Durham.