Protests against the Trump regime took place Monday, Labor Day, across San Diego County with the largest and most significant event in downtown San Diego at Waterfront Park.
San Diego’s protests joined “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations throughout the country in cities that included Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and New York in a nationwide Labor Day effort organized by labor unions and other groups. Other demonstrations in the county included those in Chula Vista, La Jolla, Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, and Escondido. The Service Employees International Union and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council were among the local event organizers. Local members and allies turned out to demand investment in schools, health care, housing, and climate action over corporate wealth.
Organizers using a scientific approach to crowd counting, determined that close to 10,000 attended the rally and march at Waterfront Park. Event spokesman Mark Sauer said, “Considering it’s a holiday for working folks, (turnout) was encouraging,” said Sauer, who added the rally was peaceful as no counter-protesters materialized.
The downtown crowd was estimated to be 1,200 to 1,500 people according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. NBC7 reported the Waterfront event drew between 2,000-3,000 people, a San Diego police official told the station.
Along with promoting the importance of organized labor, Sauer said speakers focused on the November special election for Proposition 50 — an effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw California’s congressional districts to negate a similar move in Texas — Trump administration policies’ effect on working families, and how the 2026 midterm elections will be a way “to put some serious checks and balances” on them, organizers said.
“Across San Diego County, SEIU locals are anchoring multiple coordinated events, under the ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ banner,” the SEIU said in a statement. “… members and allies are turning out to demand investment in schools, health care, housing, and climate action over corporate wealth. These actions highlight SEIU’s reach across diverse communities and show that working people: caregivers, educators, service and city workers are united in holding billionaires accountable and fighting for shared prosperity.”
A statement on the Mobilize Us website said billionaires “continue to wage a cruel war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks.”
Some of the demonstrations were also planned under the banner “Which Side Are You On?” after the 1931 song by labor activists used to delineate between United Mine Workers and their supporters in Harlan County, Kentucky and the mine owners and their “thugs.”
Christian Ramirez, political director and statewide vice president for SEIU-WW, said “Immigrant workers are essential, yet the billionaires treat them as expendable.
“Immigrant workers and their families that keep our society moving with their labor are terrorized by federal agents and exploited by bosses. This is the face of tyranny: scapegoating the vulnerable while relying on their labor. Our response is collective power. This Labor Day, we stand together — as workers, immigrants and citizens alike, as one movement for dignity.”
There was a press conference held around 9 am and the main event began about an hour later. After the end of the speakers, the crowd surged onto Harbor Drive and marched around the Embarcadero.
Other speakers included a batch of electeds, either at the press conference or rally, such as Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, San Diego City Council members Joe LaCava, Kent Lee and Stephen Whitburn.
“There is no neutral ground in this fight,” said Brigette Browning, president of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “Just like the 1930s coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, we are forced to choose: either you stand with the working class, or you enable the billionaires and politicians who are gutting our democracy and hoarding the wealth workers create.”
Fox5 reported that “People gathered at 10 a.m. at the corner of Mira Mesa Boulevard and Westview Parkway with signs demanding an end to certain steps taken by the Trump administration, including an increase in federal immigration enforcement actions. They held up signs with messages such as “I support indivisible federal workers,” “Democracy belongs to the USA” and “Hands Off Our Government.”
The Washington Post reported:
Crowds gathered in cities like Chicago, San Diego and D.C. on Labor Day to denounce what they see as the undue influence of America’s business tycoons and corporations over the second Trump administration.
May Day Strong, a coalition of labor and advocacy groups, organized more than 1,000 events — including protests and parades — in more than 900 cities. The event, called “Workers over Billionaires,” is backed by the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of labor unions; national political advocacy groups like Indivisible and MoveOn; and local grass roots organizations.
“The theme for this really is workers over billionaires. And so we are directly calling out the billionaires and their corporations that are driving the Trump agenda,” Saqib Bhatti, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, a nonprofit that helped plan May Day Strong’s national day of action.
In Chicago, threats by the Trump administration to increase immigration enforcement operations and deploy National Guard soldiers loomed over the protests. At the demonstration, which began at the Haymarket Memorial sculpture, Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) led the chant, “No troops in Chicago!” “And no matter what comes from the White House,” Johnson said. “Chicago will always be a labor town.” …
In San Francisco, Rosa Shields, political director of the local AFL-CIO body, said their rally is focused on tech executives and companies like Palantir, a software and data analytics company that has emerged as a major winner of the second Trump administration, securing billions in federal contracts amid a new government ethos that prioritizes cost-cutting and embracing artificial intelligence.
“I grew up here, and we saw the way the tech industry changed the city … a lot of people were forced out, and a lot of workers were displaced,” Shields said. “And now we’re seeing that with the AI boom.”
Organizers believe this year’s Labor Day will go down as one of the largest mobilizations on the federal holiday in decades, and hope the rallies across the country remind people of the origins of the holiday, which was first held in New York City in 1882 as a celebration of workers.
“We want to put the labor back in Labor Day,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO. “It’s not the last barbecue of the season, or the mattress sale. It’s [about] the people who make this country hum, the work that they do, and putting workers front and center.”
Since the start of Trump’s second term, thousands have gathered across the country in organized protest, such as the “Hands Off” and “No Kings” rallies that opposed Trump’s policies and billionaire Elon Musk’s role in dismantling federal agencies.
Some organizers say that while Monday’s rallies build off those demands, they are specifically focused on workers and protesting the actions of corporations or billionaires in their communities. Part of the demands listed on May Day Strong’s website include protecting and defending Medicaid, Social Security and other programs for working people, and advocating for better education, health care and housing funding.
Bhatti added that the May Day Strong coalition’s focus on organizing in local communities demonstrates how worker outrage “isn’t just limited to a handful of big, blue cities.” According to the May Day Strong website, dozens of the Labor Day events held Monday were based in small towns or suburban areas outside major metropolitan areas; many of them were held in counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. “It’s actually pervasive in every single community all across the country,” Bhatti said. “In small towns that may have voted overwhelmingly for Trump, folks are still pissed off at the fact that he’s putting billionaires ahead of working people, and that he’s going to be slashing Medicaid, and cutting benefits and laying off federal workers and coming after our communities.”
Comments about San Diego Electeds
Back in San Diego, it’s interesting to note the elected officials who turned out for the Billionaires Over Workers rally and press conference in front of the County Admin Building. Many of the city council members in attendance have been under intense criticism of late for their votes on ADU reforms, the trash fee and other housing issues that have mobilized hundreds of residents from across the city to city council and planning commission hearings. We’re talking about Sean Elo-Rivera, Joe LaCava, Stephen Whitburn, Kent Lee.
Just as one example, when it came time for the Council to put on the finalizing touches on the ADU reforms, “Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera, Kent Lee, and Stephen Whitburn would have voted against ADU reform, but they didn’t show up at the meeting,” the Rag reported back in late July. Then, more recently, Joe LaCava was the sole vote against a continuance for the issue of “surplus land” being created in Mission Bay Park for use for hotels or housing before the public had a chance to digest what the Mayor was doing.
Apparently, it’s one thing for local pols to show their “solidarity” with the workers and the unions over billionaires than it is for them to show solidarity with residents of neighborhoods under siege by for-profit developers and those wealthy enough to build massive housing projects.
Local News Sources on Labor Day protests:
Thanks for the great coverage Frank!!!