May Day 2026 was celebrated across the world as a day of solidarity of working people and a celebration of the rights that workers had gained over centuries of struggles and sacrifices. Notable gains included a living wage, security, a limited work day, and rights related to overtime and other benefits. It is a fact that many of these rights have now been relegated to paper, while the reality remains very different. It was therefore also a day for sombre reflection on the actual situation faced by workers.
As if to bring the points above into sharp relief, India witnessed sustained protests beginning more than a month earlier in no less a place than the National Capital Region. This region has seen a huge expansion in casual manufacturing as well as the arrival of bigger industries. The region consists of the capital itself, along with important urban centres in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. As a result of this political division, the laws governing wages and workers’ rights vary across them. The workers’ unrest was based on what was considered a profound lack of justice in wages and compensation and in their application across various industries. While wages had remained stagnant, rampant inflation and the problems of daily life had been compounded by the conflict in West Asia and the increase in the prices of essential commodities, fuel, transport, as well as the constant rise in rents, thereby making life unbearable for lakhs of workers in the region.
The protests were met with force by the security forces of Uttar Pradesh in NOIDA. We strongly protested against the draconian use of force against the working people of India and called for the immediate addressing of the demands of the workers and for a resolution acceptable to all parties — namely the working people represented by their unions, the management, as well as the government. We also found it deplorable that government officials immediately used the tired and hackneyed phrase that the unrest had been fomented by external forces seeking to derail India’s progress — a claim that was laughable at best and grotesque at worst.
Writing in the online edition of the Deccan Herald dated April 26, 2026, Deccan Herald journalist Gyanendra Keshri quoted Amarjeet Kaur as saying that “…the main demands across protests were similar — higher wages, fair overtime pay, proper working conditions and social security such as provident fund and gratuity…”, while referring to similar protests in Panipat, Faridabad, Manesar, and Surat. Elsewhere in the article, the four labour codes — the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code of Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — were cited. Kaur was quoted as saying: “These labour codes are actually to legalise all the violations that are happening.”
The Central government had passed numerous laws in the name of ease of doing business and instituted various hire-and-fire policies that effectively threw to the winds the hard-earned rights of working people. The need of the hour remained for working people, along with all fair-minded citizens, to unite and challenge the extreme anti-worker environment that pervaded all walks of life in the country. The spirit of May Day 2026 should continue to inspire efforts to make this a reality.
Image source: https://www.newsclick.in/may-day-2026-workers-left-behind-development-story
by BA and Venkatesh Sundaram
