May Day protesters rally for workers’ rights outside the Alaska State Capitol

Hundreds of workers in Juneau joined thousands nationwide on Thursday night at protests to mark International Workers Day, also known as May Day. 

Cardboard signs crumbled and paint dripped as roughly 400 protesters gathered in the rain to call for better working protections and other causes at the Alaska State Capitol. It resembled many other rallies held in Juneau this year to denounce recent actions by the Trump Administration. 

Eric Antrim is the recording secretary for the local National Federation of Federal Employees union, which represents hundreds of Forest Service workers in Alaska.

“Our brothers and sisters in the labor movement have been standing shoulder to shoulder with federal employee unions and protests throughout this troubled country,” he said. “My National Federal Employees Union is more than 100 years old. We are not going anywhere, no matter how many illegal executive orders Trump signs.”

Hundreds of federal employees in Alaska have lost their jobs as President Donald Trump slashes the federal workforce. According to recent city data, the federal government is Juneau’s second-largest employer after the state, with more than 700 workers.  

Local groups organized the rally, like Juneau Indivisible, Juneau for Democracy, ReSisters, Planned Parenthood Alaska and Action Alaska. The groups have hosted a handful of other protests in recent months. The rally also tackled broader issues going on across the nation, like the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 

X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, an award-winning writer and professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, spoke at the rally. 

“When I go places, I say my name is X̱’unei. I’m also known as Lance. My middle names are diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. 

Twitchell called on protesters to stay united amid what he called attacks on Indigenous and civil rights by the Trump administration. 

“Just because someone could say something the loudest and the strongest, and you could write your name to a piece of paper saying ‘This word is illegal, now nobody can use this word or we’ll take all the money away.’ That’s not how things work in this country,” he said. 

The rally concluded with an Alaska Native song and dance before attendees marched to the cruise ship docks. It was one of more than 15 rallies held at the Capitol since the Trump Administration took office.