A Peninsula state senator and multiple San Francisco supervisors were arrested Friday during widespread May Day demonstrations across the Bay Area. The arrests occurred at San Francisco International Airport, where Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat, and approximately two dozen other elected officials, labor leaders, and protesters blocked departure lane access. Police detained 25 people with zip ties and issued citations for unlawful assembly. San Francisco supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Connie Chan were also arrested at the airport.
The protests, organized under the banner "May Day Strong," called for a national one-day business boycott with the slogan "no work, no school, no shopping." Becker, speaking to reporters after his arrest, emphasized the economic pressures facing Bay Area workers. "One job should be enough — you should be able to live in the Bay Area and feed your family on one job," he said. "Unfortunately, in the Bay Area for too many workers, that just isn't true."
At Oakland International Airport, hundreds of protesters chanted "People power!" and "We're May Day strong" while marching through drop-off areas for Delta, Alaska, and Volaris airlines. Demonstrators carried signs demanding the end of immigration arrests and deportation operations, opposing arms shipments to Israel through the Port of Oakland, and calling to tax the wealthy. Gregory Slaughter, 73, articulated a central message: "We're the people — we're the ones who made them rich. They need to pay their fair share of taxes."
In San Jose, hundreds gathered at the intersection of Story and King roads, including Tom Steyer, a hedge fund manager and gubernatorial candidate. Protesters chanted "Si se puede" and carried banners urging the city to protect immigrants from federal agents. Laura Randall, a retired schoolteacher, said she attended to protest insufficient protections for human rights, particularly regarding healthcare and education for migrants.
Louie Rocha, a representative with the Communications Workers of America, urged protesters to sustain opposition to the Trump administration. "The billionaires and their evil twin, corporate greed, will never stop trying to divide us," Rocha told the crowd.
In the East Bay, select businesses remained closed in solidarity with protesters. The Grand Lake Theater and Arizmendi near Lake Merritt in Oakland shuttered for the day. At Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, union trades workers, high school students, and other demonstrators rallied against the administration. At a housing development site on Ellsworth Street in Berkeley, a lone unionized electrical worker left the job after two hours to support the nearby picketers, according to Jason Gumataotao, lead organizer with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595.
In Oakland's Fruitvale district, where Latino workers have faced increased pressure from immigration enforcement, demonstrators banged drums and held flags while chanting in Spanish. A restaurant worker named Sonia spoke of collective strength: "It may seem that we have no rights. But we have rights if we stick together and join together." Bay Area May Day demonstrations reflected broader global protests on the holiday, with similar actions reported in Seoul, Sydney, Jakarta, Morocco, Turkey, France, and the Philippines.
