Every advance working people enjoy today, from safer workplaces and paid leave to decent wages, pensions, weekends and collective bargaining rights, was not handed down as a gift. It was won through struggle, solidarity and trade union action. On 1 May, we do not simply celebrate workers; we remember that progress only happens when workers organise, build trade union power and stand together. We recommit ourselves to the fight for quality jobs, fairness and dignity for all.

In 2026, we also mark 90 years since the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, a struggle in which miners, steelworkers, railway workers and nurses from across Europe and beyond volunteered to defend democracy against the rising tide of fascism. They crossed oceans and mountains not for glory, but because they believed that an injury to one is an injury to all.

They stood alongside people they had never met. Their courage reminds us of a simple truth: internationalism is in the DNA of our movement.

Today, we need that spirit more than ever.

We live in a world where peace is fragile, where democracy is under pressure, and where inequality continues to grow. While the wealth of billionaires rises year after year, too many working families face rising living costs, insecure jobs and communities damaged by deindustrialisation.

At the same time, a small number of unaccountable corporate elites are gaining unprecedented control over the technologies that shape our economies, politics and public debate. They build fortunes from workers’ labour and society’s shared resources while claiming regulation is the problem and inequality is unavoidable.

We reject that future.

We demand a Europe where technology serves people, not the other way around. Where wealth is created fairly and shared justly. Where power is not concentrated in the hands of the few. And that means strengthening worker power, union power and collective power.

That is why industriAll Europe, representing seven million workers across manufacturing, energy and mining sectors, is calling for urgent action to secure a fairer future.

1. A Just Transition
Economic transformation must protect workers, not sacrifice them. The jobs of tomorrow must be quality jobs, secure, unionised jobs with strong collective bargaining, access to training and opportunities in every region.

2. A Strong European Industrial Policy
Europe must invest in its industrial base, not allow it to decline. We need resilient supply chains, clean technologies, strategic autonomy and public investment that puts workers and communities before short term shareholder returns.

3. Fair Wages and Collective Bargaining
Every worker has the right to a living wage and the right to bargain collectively. Strong unions reduce inequality, strengthen democracy and create more stable societies.

4. Social Justice and Worker Participation
Workers must have a real voice in company decisions and in policymaking. Democracy must extend beyond the ballot box and into the workplace.

5. International Solidarity
Capital is global. Technology is global. Crises are global. Our movement must be global too. We need stronger cooperation across borders to raise standards, defend rights and ensure multinational companies are held accountable.

These are not slogans. They are necessities.

If we fail to act, others will fill the vacuum: nationalism, anti union attacks, disinformation and those who seek to rig the rules in favour of the powerful.

But if we organise and stand together, we can write a different story, one of rebuilt communities, renewed industries, quality jobs and stronger democracy.

The volunteers who fought in Spain believed in that world. So must we.

Our movement has always understood something the wealthy and powerful never will: real power does not come from money. It comes from solidarity.

So on this International Workers’ Day, let us honour our past by fighting together for our future.

Let us stand with workers everywhere, from Brussels to Barcelona, from Dublin to Donetsk, from the factory floor to the digital workplace.

Workers will not be divided. We will not be silenced. We will organise, we will fight, and together we will win a fairer world, at the ballot box and on the shop floor.