May 2, 2025

UUP President Fred Kowal, waving a red and white sign that read “Stop the Billionaire Takeover,” shouted words of encouragement as passing cars honked their horns as they drove by the site of a huge May Day rally in Albany May 1.

Standing with hundreds of shouting, sign-holding supporters who lined both sides of New Scotland Avenue near Albany Medical College, Kowal looked up and grinned broadly.

“This is what unity looks like,” said Kowal, his black Brooklyn Needs Downstate hat perched over a pair of dark sunglasses. “We’ve come together and we’re not going to back down.”

Many speakers described the hearing and its three predecessors as highly orchestrated and tightly controlled forums in which DCAB members did not respond to direct questions or comments. Dozens of advocates held up paddle signs during nearly 90 minutes of public comments that read, “You’re not listening!” on one side and “You don’t care!” on the other. At times, Downstate supporters broke into chants in support of the hospital.

Kowal’s resolve was shared by a crowd of more than 1,000 people, many of whom flocked to the rally to express their support for unions and working families and stand in defiance to the authoritarian actions and policies of the new Republican-led administration and the billionaires who support them.

Many carried hand-made signs that read “Laws-R-Not-Optional,” “Someone explain what crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected president?” and “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?”

That scene was repeated at more than 1,000 May Day rallies and demonstrations in every state and overseas on May 1, organized by the grassroots 50501 Movement, labor unions and other volunteer organizations. Thousands of supporters and unionists flocked to demonstrations in New York City and Philadelphia, where Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke, respectively.

Rochester ready

UUP statewide Vice President for Academics Alissa Karl spoke at the Unite and Fight rally in Rochester, where NYSUT is holding its annual Representative Assembly. UUP members, including statewide Secretary-Treasurer Jeri O’Bryan-Losee, statewide Membership Development Officer Patrick Romain and statewide Executive Board member Pamela Malone, were among the hundreds of NYSUT members at the rally.

"They have threatened to cut off our funding and arrest us for doing our jobs of teaching students and making sure every student is included on our campuses,” Karl said. “Quite simply, they want to control what students can learn and they want to silence people who might disagree with them."

More than 1,000 people gathered under cloudy skies on the Genesee River waterfront to hear speeches from workers' rights advocates and immigrants' rights advocates as well as a representative from AFGE, Roy Porter, and a spokesperson for Third Act, Denise Young, who talked about how climate change wasn't created by workers, but the impact is felt by the workers.

Signs read "the power of the people is greater than the people in power," and "without due process, it's just kidnapping," "A woman's place is in the revolution," "Fight for freedom," and "Trump is a Russian asset."

As the rain started, the assembly marched through downtown Rochester with chants such as "Workers of the world unite!" and "What do we want? Union! When do we want it? NOW!"

UUP members in Buffalo, Farmingdale and Oneonta were also at May Day rallies. You can view photos from these events on UUP’s flickr photo page, HERE. Photos from the Albany rally are HERE.

A message of solidarity

Speaking to more than 1,000 people at the Albany rally, Kowal urged unity in the face of a barrage of damaging presidential executive orders that have targeted and attacked higher education, unions, health care, Medicare and Medicaid, social security, science, the environment and a litany of other vital services that Americans depend on. More than 121,000 federal workers have left or lost their jobs since the new administration took office Jan. 20.

“Now more than ever, when federal workers are losing their jobs and losing their union rights, we have to be united,” Kowal said. “Now more than ever, when the government is going to go after Medicaid and Medicare, we have to be united. Now more than ever, when the work that we do is not honored or respected by those who claim to lead this country, we have to be united. And through worker power and union power, we can defeat them!”

Ashley Fox, an Albany Chapter UUP member and University at Albany associate professor, lashed out at the new administration over the cancellation of her National Institutes of Health research grant to study the maternal health crisis. Despite court rulings that ordered the administration to lift a research grant funding freeze, the process to review, renew and approve grants is only just now coming back on line.

“We are under assault,” Fox said. “This is deliberate and straight out of an authoritarian playbook. Our ability to study and research free from political interference has been pulled out from under us. “Soon, we will no longer be able to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction, what is doublespeak and what is accurate information.”