These are some noteworthy labor headlines we read this week.

Weekend Labor Reads:

31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other health care workers strike for better wages and staffing

 An estimated 31,000 registered nurses and Kaiser Permanente health care workers went on strike Tuesday to demand better wages and staffing from the California health care giant. Organizers say the five-day strike across 500 medical centers and offices in California, Hawaii and Oregon is the largest in the 50-year history of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. The strike could grow to include 46,000 people. Those on strike, including pharmacists, midwives and rehab therapists, say wages have not kept pace with inflation and there is not enough staffing to keep up with patient demand. They are asking for a 25% wage increase over four years to make up for wages they say are at least 7% behind their peers.

AP News

FEDERAL WORKERS

Judge pauses shutdown layoffs at more than 30 federal agencies

NPR

Andrea Hsu

FEDERAL WORKERS

Union president reacts to federal judge order to halt federal worker layoffs

NPR

Mary Louise Kelly

HIGHER EDUCATION



Graduate, postdoctoral scholars grapple with labor strain amid funding cuts

Daily Bruin

Alyssa Wong

Ft. Toby Higbie, IRLE Director

HIGHER EDUCATION

Judge rules UC must publicize Trump administration settlement demands

Daily Bruin

Josephine Murphy

IRLE NEWS: Kent Wong Tributes

Kent Wong, a champion of nonviolent resistance in the L.A. labor movement, dies at 69

Los Angeles Times

Suhauna Hussain

In memoriam: Kent Wong, 69, labor and immigrant rights champion and former director of UCLA Labor Center

UCLA Newsroom

The immigrant and labor community mourn the passing of long-time activist and educator Kent Wong

Caló News

Jacqueline García

Remember This!

Memory Work Los Angeles is a project of UCLA IRLE. We bring the past to the present to highlight the diverse experiences and perspectives of working people in Southern California, the changing world of work, and the continuing struggle for equality.

New Labor Movement Teach-In, 1997

In 1997, Kent Wong, then director of the UCLA Labor Center, spearheaded a 'teach-in' on UCLA campus that convened high profile labor leaders with hundreds of students and community members. Notable speakers and attendees included John Sweeney, then president of the AFL-CIO, Mike Garcia, then president SEIU Local 1877, and Dolores Huerta. In this clip, Wong opens the event with Paul Ong, then chair of the UCLA Urban Planning Department.

Was this email forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe and make sure you get Weekend Labor Reads delivered right to your inbox every week!

IRLE is on Instagram! Please check us out here or by clicking on the icon below, and give us a follow to stay up to date on all our upcoming content!

UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) advances labor research and education for workplace justice. Through the work of its units – the UCLA Labor Center, the Human Resources Roundtable, the Labor Occupational Safety and Health program (LOSH) and its academic program, UCLA Labor Studies – the Institute forms wide-ranging research and agendas that carry UCLA into the Los Angeles community and beyond.