The unions consider a demonstration at İstanbul's Taksim square to be a symbolic victory, after being banned from holding May Day rallies there since 34 people died in a 1977 gathering.
Some unionists climbed onto a monument at the square, waving union flags and chanting "Long live May 1!" Others sang and danced.
Turkey declared May Day a public holiday last week, bowing to pressure from labor unions.
But the government said small groups of unionists could pass through police barricades and enter Taksim square for commemorations, citing security concerns.
Riot police used tear gas and water canons to drive back hundreds of others who had gathered in surrounding neighborhoods to march on to Taksim in defiance of a ban on large-scale festivities at Taksim.
The square has symbolic importance after unknown gunmen in 1977 opened fire at workers celebrating May Day, causing a stampede.
The 2,000 or so demonstrators allowed to enter Taksim on Friday marched slowly toward the square, halting often as scuffles broke out with groups of protesters in side streets trying to join the group.
Dozens of people were injured in the scuffles, and police detained at least 20 people, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Police fired repeated blasts of tear gas at stone-throwing protesters. At one point, a white cloud of tear gas wafted back toward police and the densely packed marchers. Some police without masks and marchers doubled over and gagging, and a woman was taken away in an ambulance after apparently being overwhelmed by the gas.
At Taksim, protesters hung a large poster from the window of an adjacent hotel denouncing Turkey's failure to prosecute anyone for firing on protesters in 1977.
"Those who fired from this spot on May 1, 1977, should be found," the poster read.
Despite the scuffles on the fringes, Friday's march was more orderly than last year's, which turned violent when workers tried to defy the government ban on festivities at Taksim.
Labor Day had stopped being a public holiday in Turkey following a 1980 military coup, whose leaders regarded the festivities as an opportunity for leftist activism.
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Benzer Haberler 
National
