Immigrant workers lead on May Day

As working people hit the streets for International Workers’ Day, immigrant workers united in their unions are leading the way

SEATTLE, WA (May 1, 2026) — International Workers’ Day has long recognized justice for immigrant workers as a central demand, as the current realities and historical legacies of migration across borders in search of work to survive is central to May Day’s call for transnational solidarity. This year, with a virulently anti-immigrant and anti-worker administration in the White House, immigrant union members are leading calls for action to end the mass campaign of violent and dehumanizing immigration arrests, detentions, and deportations; shutdown detention centers; expel ICE from local communities; and defend and protect the right for all workers to organize and collectively bargain.

“May Day is solidarity in action, a mass demonstration of worker power and a reminder to bosses and billionaires who really runs this country,” said Washington State Labor Council president April Sims. “Led by our immigrant siblings in the labor movement, our demands here in Washington state are clear: ICE out of our hospitals, schools, and communities. Shut down the inhumane Northwest Detention Center. Stop the surveillance of our communities and info-sharing with Customs and Border Patrol, Protect the right to organize and defend our unions. It’s workers over billionaires, today and always.”

Seattle’s May Day mass action will kick off at noon in Cal Anderson park. But it’s not the only action in the city today connecting calls for worker rights and immigrant rights in tandem. Hospitality workers organized in UNITE HERE Local 8 are rallying at Embassy Suites in Seattle’s Pioneer Square at 4:00 p.m. and marching to the FIFA volunteer office, calling on the organization not to cooperate with the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants. As the countdown to the World Cup continues, workers are demanding that FIFA act to block ICE acting as security in or around World Cup venues and not to share workers’ personal information with ICE.

Protestors march on May 1, 2025 in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

In a news release, Ramon Quiroz-Saltos, a cook at Lumen Field, said, “I have worked at Seattle stadiums for over two years. As we prepare to feed the World Cup community, we are concerned about what ICE will do to immigrant workers. We know we are safer together in the Union, so we are standing up, organizing to know our rights, and protecting ourselves.”

Workers are in ongoing contract negotiations with Embassy Suites’ operator Hilton and safety concerns around immigration enforcement and workload are central issues. Embassy Suites is next to Lumen Field, where World Cup matches will be played. The presence of ICE is a serious workplace safety concern, especially if violent, unaccountable agents stay in the hotel. But so far, management has rejected workers’ demands.

“My coworkers and I are fighting for better staffing and fair and reasonable workloads,” said Elkin Ortega, a House Attendant at the Embassy Suites. “We also fear for our safety if ICE stays in our hotel. We deserve better treatment.”

Actions to support immigrant worker organizing are not just in Seattle. In the Yakima Valley, working people will rally outside Windmill Farms at 2:00 p.m., standing in solidarity with mushroom workers who have been fighting for their union for nearly four years. The workers, many of whom are immigrants, have kept up their fight for union recognition despite intimidation from the boss and Washington’s labor laws failing to protect their right to organize. They’re leading a multi-year boycott endorsed by labor organizations representing millions of people in Oregon, Washington State, and Canada. Community organizations and union members will then rally at South Hill at 3:00 p.m. to celebrate and support farmworkers and other essential workers in the Yakima Valley.

Labor-supported marches in defense of workers’ rights and demanding justice, safety, and protection for immigrant workers are also planned in Spokane and in Tacoma, where demonstrators plan to march to the NW Detention Center.