Hundreds rally in downtown Asheville for May Day
19 pics
... It’s a day where workers, students and immigrants come together with the message of putting workers over billionaires.
May Day is meant to bring attention to the rising costs families are facing while billionaires and corporations keep taking more.
... While May Day marches are typically about the labor rights movement, some of the protesters were there pushing for higher teacher wages.
“A lot of people in my family are teachers, so I just really believe that they should get better pay for the work that they do,” said Forrest Moore, 9, of Asheville, whose mother’s a teacher. “It’s nice knowing that there’s all these people that support this great thing, great teachers.”
While there may have been multiple messages at Friday’s Asheville march, people of all different backgrounds still stood together in solidarity.
“It reminds me that we are never alone as a working class. Our struggles are tied together, whether it’s a struggle against war, endless war that we’ve seen, whether it’s a struggle for race equality, whether it’s a struggle just to get our schools funded, or for universal healthcare,” a participant told News13.
An Asheville-area teacher, Paula Dinga, echoed that statement.
“I think it was a great feeling of unity with folks that have very common interests and so many different angles of our community that need to be represented," Dinga said.
Also, at the University of North Carolina Asheville, a professor held a class on the history of unionization in North Carolina and its relevance today.
News 13 spoke with one student who brought his kids to the class.
“Well, I wanted to show my kids why it's important to understand why their teachers took the day off and how valued their input is into the society. You know we value our future generations because they lead the workforce and the future of our commitment to each other,” said UNCA senior Jeremy Moore.
Fuckin' anti-American DonOLD.
