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"Lockheed is a textbook example of corporate greed and I'm proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our members as they fight for their fair share," said one regional director with the United Auto Workers.
As an estimated tens of thousands mobilized for actions planned to honor May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, the United Auto Workers announced Thursday that over 900 UAW members who work for Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense company, have gone on strike.
Those striking include members of UAW Local 788 in Orlando and Local 766 in Denver, according to the union, which alleges that the company has committed "multiple unfair labor practices and refused to present a fair economic proposal that meets the membership's needs."
The two locals are covered by the same bargaining agreement, according to The Denver Post, and workers in both locations walked off the job after voting down an offer from Lockheed Martin on Saturday. The company has "refused to present a fair economic proposal that meets the membership's needs," per the union.
The outlet Orlando Weekly reported that the union says Lockheed Martin has offered "meaningful" pay raises for union members during contract discussions, but other issues have remained unresolved. They include holiday schedules, cost of living allowance, healthcare and prescription drug coverage, among others, according to UAW.
"It would be nice for the future generations and everybody else coming in not to have to wait 18 years to provide for their family like I have," Michael Mahoney, who has worked at Lockheed Martin for 21 years and and is a military veteran, told Orlando Weekly.
"They say they support the military, they want to use the veteran status, but when it comes to really showing us—a veteran, you know—the appreciation that we deserve, it don't feel like we get appreciated at all around here," said Mahoney.
The defense giant brought in $5.3 billion in net earnings in 2024, and has secured $1.7 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2025.
Union workers rallied outside of the Lockheed Martin Waterton Campus in Denver on Thursday, according to the local outlet 9NEWS."Lockheed's workers have to wait years and even decades before seeing a comfortable standard of living, while its executives are swimming in taxpayer dollars," said UAW Region 4 director Brandon Campbell in a statement on Thursday. "Lockheed is a textbook example of corporate greed and I'm proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our members as they fight for their fair share."
According to 9NEWS, Lockheed Martin issued the following statement regarding the strike: "We value our employees and their expertise and look forward to reaching a fair labor agreement for both sides. Our employees perform important work for our customers and the nation through their work supporting programs critical to our national security."
"This is a war on working people—and we will not stand down."
With right-wing, pro-corporate political parties across the world aggressively pushing anti-immigration policies and sentiment as they worsen inequality and attack crucial services, working people across the world gathered on Thursday to mark May Day—the holiday memorializing the struggles and victories of the global labor movement—and to let those in power know they aren't fooled by xenophobic scapegoating.
"They tell people that migrants are to blame for failing hospitals, job insecurity, and rising rents," said Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Conference in Paris. "This is a lie—a dangerous lie. The true cause is austerity, it is underfunding, privatization, and a refusal to invest in people. It's price gauging, it's union busting, it's pay injustice."
Here are photos from demonstrations and marches worldwide:
Protesters with red flags raise their fists as they march during a May Day (Labour Day) rally, marking International Workers' Day, outside the Greek Parliament in Athens, on May 1, 2025. (Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images)










Paris was the site of France's main May Day rally, but an estimated 260 protests kicked off throughout the country, hosted by the General Confederation of France (CGT).
In the United States, protests were expected in nearly 1,000 cities, with many participants tying the fight against union-busting, the high cost of living, privatization, and corporate greed to President Donald Trump's administration—which has spent the past three months working to secure $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy while pushing a mass deportation campaign and blaming working families' struggles on a so-called "invasion" by immigrants.
"This is a war on working people—and we will not stand down," a website for the U.S. May Day protests reads. "They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services, attacking unions, and targeting immigrant families with fear and violence. Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won't back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that propel opportunity and a better life for all Americans. Their time is up."
French union leaders also used the occasion to decry the "Trumpization" of global politics, and Italian protesters in Turin paraded a puppet of the U.S. president.
The global movement sent the message that "there is an alternative to the billionaire vision of the world," said the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Other May Day marches and rallies were held in countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, the Philippines, Turkey, and Japan.
"Around the world, workers are being denied the basics of life like well-funded hospitals and schools, living wages, and freedom to move, while billionaires pocket record profits and unimaginable power," said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the ITUC. "A system built for the 0.0001% is rigged against the rest of us—but workers around the world are standing up and organizing to take back democracy."
"Workers are demanding a New Social Contract that works for them—not the billionaires undermining democracy," said Triangle. "Fair taxation, strong public services, living wages, and a just transition are not radical demands—they are the foundation of a just society."
On May 8, the ITUC plans to issue an open letter to heads of state and global institutions demanding a new social contract, including collective bargaining rights for all workers; minimum living wages; and governments that ensure universal healthcare, education, and other public services.
"Let us be clear: austerity is a political choice, not an economic necessity. And it is a choice that has caused and is causing enormous damage," said Lynch. "When governments slash spending under the guise of fiscal responsibility, the real result is increased hardship, unemployment, and insecurity—especially for working people."
"Jobs in the public and private sector are being lost across the E.U. due to austerity policies," she added. "Vital public services are being slashed, wages are being frozen, pensions cut and entire communities are being abandoned. In this vacuum, the far right grows stronger—not by offering solutions, but by spreading fear."
"We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics," organizers said.
Organizers expect tens of thousands of Americans to turn out on Thursday for rallies aimed at resisting U.S. President Donald Trump and "his billionaire profiteers" as part of a May Day national day of action, on the heels of mass mobilizations for nationwide "Hands Off!" protests just weeks ago.
"This May Day we are standing united. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics," according to organizing materials from a national coalition of groups. "Stop the billionaire takeover. We are the many. They are the few."
May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, comes as the American people increasingly see and feel the effects of the Trump administration's various policies—from his crackdown on immigration, to targeting of foreign born students who exercise pro-Palestine speech, to the administration's dismissal of tens of thousands of federal employees, to sweeping tariffs.
On Thursday, one of more than 1,100 May Day rallies will be held at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
Rallies are planned in New York, the District of Columbia, Chicago, and Atlanta, among other cities.
Nearly 200 groups are listed as coalition partners supporting the national May Day actions. They include unions, climate groups, grassroots organizations, and more. Among them is "50501"—a movement that began on Reddit and brought together organizers and regular Americans for a rally to resist the Trump administration back in February. Local and state-level 50501 groups are also listed as partners for the May Day actions.
In addition to mobilization through 50501, protests on Thursday will follow "Hands Off!" actions on April 5, when an estimated one million people turned out nationwide, according to Democracy Now!
50501 spearheaded yet another round of rallies on April 19.
The events are taking place more than two months into Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy tour, during which he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have drawn crowds of thousands in Republican districts in Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho, and other states.
In addition to the May Day national day of action, the group Free Speech for People, which has launched a campaign to drum up support for impeachment proceedings against Trump, will also hold a day of action on Thursday.
Free Speech for People has partnered with Citizens' Impeachment and the two groups will devote tomorrow to "generating calls and emails to Congress members, urging them to impeach Trump for his grave abuses of power."
"We cannot allow Trump and his allies to destroy our republic," wrote Free Speech for People in a post on X.