May Day or International Workers’ Day celebrates workers and the history of labor organizing. Every Year, working people around the world join together for a day of remembrance & demonstrations. 

 

If you work on campus, in dining halls, libraries, labs, dorms or as a TA, you are a worker. When students and workers organize together, we can raise wages and conditions for every worker at your institution. Unionized campuses have won paid sick leave, healthcare, harassment protections and living wages. 

 

Budget cuts, privatization, union busting and attacks on academic freedom are all a part of the same agenda. Students and workers are stronger when they resist together. 

 

On May 1st, 2026, workers, students, and families across all 50 states are taking action together.

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Big Picture 

 

• By 2031, 70% of U.S. jobs will require some college education, yet college is becoming less affordable. 

• A 4-year degree at a public university now costs $100,000+ (room, board, books, fees included)

• Tuition & fees alone average $40,000, and that's before rent, food, or anything else.

    

Why it’s so expensive 

• State governments have been cutting funding to public colleges for 25+ years and schools replaced that money by raising your tuition.

• As a result, college costs have more than doubled in the last 25 year.

 

Who is affected? 

• First-gen students, students of color, working students, and student parents face the biggest gap between what they can afford and what schools charge.

• Community colleges  which disproportionately serve students of color have been historically underfunded.

 

What students are demanding

• States must reinvest in public colleges so everyone can attend without going into debt.

• Free or debt-free options for both 2-year and 4-year degrees, not just community college.

 

Real Examples That Already Exist

• Massachusetts (MASSGrant Plus): free tuition & fees for income- eligible students at public 2- and 4-year schools

• Tennessee Promise, CUNY ASAP, California Promise, Massachusetts’s MassEducate: free community college models that work