ACROSS THE U.S. — Labor unions, student groups and community organizations will hold May Day demonstrations across the United States on Friday, calling for a boycott of work, school and shopping to protest the policies of President Donald Trump's administration. Organizers say more than 500 groups will participate in the events, which they have branded "May Day Strong."

The demonstrations are planned in cities ranging from Boston to San Francisco, with rallies set for Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, and Portland, Oregon, among others. The events are meant to mark International Labor Day, and they follow earlier anti-Trump protests under the "No Kings" banner that organizers say have drawn millions of people nationwide. May 1 has traditionally been reserved as a day of protest in the U.S., distinct from the Labor Day celebrations in September, with roots in a 19th-century movement to establish an eight-hour workday when many Americans worked shifts of 12 hours or more.

The National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union with 3 million members, is a key organizer of the protests. Activists have said the Trump administration's policies favor billionaires over other Americans. "The country should focus on workers over billionaires," said Becky Pringle, president of the NEA.

Sunrise Movement, which describes itself as "young people fighting fascism to win a Green New Deal," said more than 100,000 students were expected to miss school in a strike on May 1. In North Carolina, where per-pupil spending and teacher salaries rank near the bottom nationwide according to the NEA, some 20 public school districts will be closed on May 1 due to planned staff absences.

Educators and school workers, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers and maintenance staff, plan to rally in Raleigh to pressure the state legislature for more education funding. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education voted to call off school on May 1 due to the number of staff absences expected.

North Carolina State Senator Amy Galey objected to the closures. "Shutting down the schools for a day is not going to benefit students," she said. "We have less than 20 instructional days left in the school year, and the teachers are taking time to come to Raleigh on one of those really important critical instruction days," Galey said.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union, linked the protests to tax policy. "Not taxing the ultra-rich leaves schools without teachers, libraries without books, unsafe bridges, shuttered hospitals, and the rest of us paying more," she said. "We want a different future where students and communities have what they need," Davis Gates said. "It's going to take all of us organizing together to make that happen," she added.

In his first term, Trump declared May 1 "Loyalty Day" to celebrate the country's loyalty to individual liberties. "We have never wavered from standing up for American workers, from renegotiating broken trade deals to securing trillions in manufacturing investments to slashing taxes on overtime to securing our border. President Trump will always have the backs of American workers," the White House said in a statement.