Seattle May Day crowds crossing Broadway Thursday afternoon (Image: CHS)
With reporting by Matt Dowell
A sunny Seattle May Day 2025 saw thousands rallying for worker and immigration rights fill Cal Anderson Park and march from Capitol Hill to downtown Thursday afternoon.
Crowds grew from the noontime rally with hundreds of workers from multiple unions and labor groups joining hundreds and hundreds more from community and activist groups. Plenty also showed up to protest the second Trump administration and the White House’s ongoing worker cuts in key science, health, safety, and transportation departments and attacks on spending on federal programs.
A very rough survey of the signage yielded these stats: 25% in support of democracy and against fascism, 16% tired of Elon Musk, 15% wanting an end to Trump and Project 2025, 11% supporting immigrants and abolishment of I.C.E. Among the remaining causes represented: workers, Ukraine’s war effort, Trans rights, empathy, and an end to chaos. Specifically, “Stop the poo flinging chaos monkeys”.
Still, a common thread emerged.
“We’re out here for solidarity between labor and the migrant community,” said Corinne Cosentino, business manager at the OPEIU Local 8 union. OPEIU represents employees working in offices, health and home care, housing, social services, the insurance industry, legal services and the public sector. “This is an outlet for people’s need to stand up.”
Kong Barry of the UFCW 3000, which represents nearly 30,000 workers in grocery stores like Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC, and Albertsons, said that as billionaires take over, workers need to band together to “get some of the pie”. Livable wages, healthcare, pensions – these are all things her union fights for. An immigrant herself, she said that many are simply looking for a better life in America. “What is so wrong with that?”
Earlier Thursday, students joined faculty in a walk-out at nearby Seattle Central to protest budget cuts.
After speeches and songs concluded on the main stage in Cal Anderson, there were administrative matters to take care of: a missing phone had been found. It was cracked. Another person was missing their glasses. “They need them to drive,” said the emcee. Then Renaissance The Poet, one of the organizers, took the mic and said, “Resistance doesn’t start until we take one step beyond what they say is ok.”
The speaker followed with a safety briefing. There was an accessibility brigade for those who march differently than most. Medics. A bike brigade to block traffic and an auto brigade to block traffic even harder, because these days people drive cars through marchers. Finally, just before 2 PM, the march began. A two-block long procession snaked down the heart of Capitol Hill: south from Cal Anderson on 11th to Pike, down across Broadway.
The crowds were peaceful and mostly law abiding. There were no reported arrests and no conflicts with police.
Happy May Day from Capitol Hill
— jseattle (@jseattle.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Organizers secured a permit for the park and had private security on hand to help with safety. A robust car and bike brigade was also on hand to help protect the march as it moved through the city.
Earlier, the Seattle Police Department said it was staffing to “provide safety and security for our community members during the upcoming May Day events,” “Uniformed patrol officers will be visible, and additional police resources will be available in the event of an emergency,” a spokesperson told CHS earlier this week. In addition to a large contingent of bike officers reported near the rally and march, multiple members of the Police Outreach Engagement Team were also on hand. The SPD squads originally formed in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests were originally known as the Public Order Engagement Team if you want a better understanding of their purpose.
Mayor Bruce Harrell, meanwhile, activated the city’s Emergency Operations Center to help monitor the day’s events.
This year represented a new direction for May Day in Seattle under a newly formed coalition of union and labor groups, and community organizations like the Latino Community Fund that moved the rally and march to Capitol Hill for the first time.
The seattlemayday.org groups include SEIU 775, SEIU 6, UFCW, 3000, UAW, the MLK Labor Council, Local 8, the Washington State Labor Council, Casa Latina, Bayan Washington, Working Washington, and Starbucks Workers United. The Latino Community Fund is serving as the event’s fiscal sponsor.
The coalition is calling for multiple demands to be met by local and federal government including shutting down the Northwest Detention Center and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We’re showing we’re here to stay. As workers, immigrants, women,” one attendee in Cal Anderson representing the group Casa Latina, an organization for Latina domestic workers, told CHS. “We are visible.”
During the march, a man carrying a Palestinian flag said he had been to many May Day events over the years. “I’m surprised at the turnout,” he said. “We’ve got many types” beyond those typically represented. “There’s the monopoly man,” he said, referring to a UFCW member who was dressed up with a top hat and monocle outside the QFC on Broadway. The UFCW crew carried a “monopoly busters” sign, celebrating a recent win: last year’s crumbling of the Albertson’s – Krogers merger.
On to Bellevue and then back to Pine. Enthusiasm, drum beats, and chants stayed strong, even in the afternoon heat. The marchers inched off the Hill toward downtown with cross streets blocked by bicycle phalanxes and SPD patrol cars. Outside a window at The Plant Store, two members of SPD’s POET checked on the price of a succulent.
By 4 PM, the crowd, now half a block long, made it to 2nd and Marion and stopped marching. Bea Bartolome of the Tanggol Migrante network was at the front. The network, which fights for Filipino migrants, was formed this year in response to the Trump administration. On Wednesday, after pressure from organizations like the group, Ate Michelle, a Filipina migrant worker detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, was released.
“So this is a day of celebration,” Bea said. “We’ll continue the fight.”
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Were they on Pine or Pike? That main image looks like Pike, by the gas station.
Thanks for the catch! Mortifying mistake!
OH MY GAWD! NO!
FIRED!
They have armed (guns) security everywhere. QFC had a half dozen telling people where to park their bikes and telling them to drop backpacks.
I went in to do my thing as always. And was mobbed by security. “You got to leave your scooter here and your backpack.”
To which I said, “I asked for the manager.” Then I saw a regular guard walk in and shouted him over. They explained there’s exceptions and I was one. Why?
1: I don’t steal and they know it.
2: I use my BP to pack groceries.
Now mind you. I am armored up knees and elbows. Bike gloves, shades, the whole deal.
I would have had to leave all my stuff at the front door! Get my stuff paid for and pay for bags. Then go transfer it all into a BP so I can ride home.
It was total bullshit. If I see them there next time? It’ll be the last. I can go up the street or Madison Safeway.
So this is the new “public safety”? Naw…It’s not. It’s IN STORE SECURITY!
I asked them their mission. That’s hit. Hired guns for businesses paid via taxes! The city hired businesses security to “keep the public safe”…we are safe INSIDE THE STORE! How about where the murders happen? Nope…Not their beat.
This is insane.
Great job everyone!