NEW YORK, NY (TIP): On Monday, September 1, 2025, between 2:00 and 4:00 PM, thousands of restaurant workers, wage advocates, and community allies will descend on Trump International Hotel & Tower (725 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022) for a major Labor Day rally and demonstration that is part of a National ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Day of Action. Organized by One Fair Wage in partnership with 50501, Rise and Resist, the New York Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, New York Doctors, Target Majority NYC and the May Day Strong coalition, the event will feature a speaking program, mass mobilization, and a large scale “Restaurant in the Street” activation, transforming Fifth Avenue into a people-powered restaurant designed to highlight the struggle of working people and launch the New York Living Wage for All campaign.
The rally will center the question workers are asking New York legislators — Which side are you on? Trump and the National Restaurant Association corporate lobby, or workers fighting for a living wage and an end to the subminimum wage for tipped workers?
Demonstrators will expose Trump’s hypocrisy in attacking working people and call on NY legislators to respond with real solutions. While campaigning as a champion of working people, he has acted as the “Restaurant Owner in Chief,” siding with the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the powerful corporate lobby that has lobbied to block wage increases and preserve the subminimum wage, a two-tiered system rooted in slavery that still traps millions of tipped workers in poverty. As recently reported in The New Yorker, the NRA has even orchestrated campaigns to train workers to oppose reforms and protect this exploitative model. Instead of standing with workers, Trump has stood with the NRA and billionaire allies, deepening the cost of living crisis rather than delivering on his campaign promises to make life affordable.
Advocates will call out Trump’s faux populist “No Tax on Tips” plan as another red herring and temporary fix that expires in 2028 and leaves out nearly two-thirds of tipped workers who earn too little to file federal income taxes. According to One Fair Wage’s Serving While Sick report, the GOP cuts to Medicaid and SNAP cuts will harm more than 1.2 million tipped and restaurant workers nationwide, far more than his tip tax policy would impact. This is why Trump is being called out as TACO (‘Trump Always Chickens Out’) – reversing on false promises made to address the affordability crisis. A companion report, Short Changed, further shows why wage increases, not temporary gimmicks, remain the real solution.
On Labor Day, workers are asking New York legislators to respond to these attacks by passing legislation that will raise wages for all workers to a Living Wage for All. With ongoing price increases and benefits being taken away, workers and allies will rally, march, and serve tacos in the street to demand real solutions to the affordability crisis and call for Living Wages for All to Make America Affordable Now.
VISUALS:
Thousands of workers rallying outside Trump Tower with protest signs and banners
A speaking program featuring restaurant workers, community leaders, and advocates
A “restaurant in the street” transformation in front of Trump Tower with tacos being served to symbolize Trump’s unfulfilled promises
Giant taco props and creative street theater highlighting Trump as TACO
A giant banner stretching across 5th Avenue reading “Which Side Are You On”
WHO: Restaurant workers, tipped workers, One Fair Wage leaders, Living Wage Coalition partners, and affordability experts
WHAT: Labor Day rally, protest, and “Restaurant in the Street” action to ask NY legislators WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, and launch the New York Living Wage for All campaign
WHERE: Trump International Hotel & Tower, 725 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022
WHEN: Monday, September 1, 2025 — 2:00 to 4:00 PM ET
RSVP: Press must RSVP HERE to attend and receive any updates
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