Caption
Katie Giede and her son attended the May Day rally where she spoke about her experience as a Waffle House employee and a union member.
Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News
Section Branding
Header Content
Georgia workers unite, demand more rights at May Day labor rally
Hero Image
Primary Content
LISTEN: Georgia workers organized a protest Thursday in solidarity with a nationwide May Day event. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports.
Hundreds of workers and union members from around the state gathered at the Georgia state Capitol on Thursday for a May Day labor rally. The event was part of a national day of labor organizing.
The rally began with a variety of speakers from farm laborers to baristas to teachers all stressing the importance of solidarity and workers’ rights.
Speaker Katie Giede represented the Union of Southern Service Workers. She said they’re pushing back against the idea that all fast food workers are teenagers who don’t need benefits.
“Teenagers cannot work at midnight when you’re drunk and trying to come in to get a waffle to sober up,” Giede said. “It’s grown women. It’s your grandmother still working. It’s your aunts, your uncles. It’s the people of this community.”
Demands from the USSW include a $25 hourly wage, fully funded health care, and an end to what they called targeted attacks on Black, transgender and immigrant communities by the Trump administration.
Amaia Ward is with the Teamsters Local 728 in Atlanta. She said workers deserve every right and opportunity.
“We will not be replaced by artificial intelligence, and we will not be replaced by cheap labor and we will not be stripped of our dignity,” Ward said. “Come 2028, Teamsters will secure an even stronger contract.”
The rally concluded with a march with stops at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building, and Atlanta City Hall.
Secondary Content
Author
Bottom Content
