WORCESTER ― Dozens of people gathered in front of City Hall on Wednesday, rallying for fair, living wages, fair contracts and affordable housing in honor of “May Day,” or International Workers’ Day, commemorated each year on the first day of May.
Union carpenters stood together in hard hats near the stairs while other attendees held signs requesting fair wages and affordable housing.
Lew Finfer, director and community organizer at Massachusetts Communities Action Network, said that although progress has been made since the first May Day in the 1800s, there is still work to do.
According to a study from Forbes, Worcester was ranked as the third most competitive rental market along the East Coast, based on pricing, availability and population.
Worcester had the second-lowest rental vacancy rate among the areas Forbes looked at, and local renters faced the third-highest year-over-year rent increases. Forbes put the median rental price in Worcester at $1,995 per month.
The publication said the ranking is due to “extremely low vacancy rates and some of the worst availability of rental units.”