‘Workers Over Billionaires’ shine light on Labor Day

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Labor Day is designed to focus attention on the American worker, one day (or long weekend) each year to take stock of the men and women who are the backbone of the country and the economy.

On this Labor Day weekend, dozens of people outside the Clackamas Town Center protested the increasing presence of an American oligarchy, part of a nationwide “Workers Over Billionaires” protest organized by the May Day Strong Coalition.

Laurie Davis with Indivisible said she was there not as part of that organization but because she’s “conscious about the idea that our government is now run by billionaires and that we need to focus on workers and workers rights.”

Davis said they’re concerned about “corruption in government and other issues,” including the slow-moving erosion of democratic values.

“What has been quite skillfully done is Project 2025,” she said, “that the big impact will slowly kick in, and most people aren’t paying attention to the lost funds now, like SNAP. But if we don’t have people, we’re losing our country.”

The dozens of people who showed up heard a lot of horn-honking support from drivers who passed. But Davis said they get “other kinds of signs” from people who disagree with them.

“We’re trying to make something fun out of something that’s really quite serious,” she said. “And that is the fact that our government is deteriorating into something that doesn’t look quite like democracy anymore.”

She said she wants Congress to take back its power from the president “and that Democrats stand up and remember how to raise their voices and stop the deterioration of democracy.”