These are some noteworthy labor headlines we read this week.

Weekly Labor Reads:

TOP STORY

Power in the hands of people’: union leaders push to revive ailing US labor movement

Over the weekend, labor leaders launched a new campaign to fund worker power and organizing called “Union Now.” The goal of Union Now is to support workers fighting to form unions in the increasingly inhospitable political climate. At a rally launching Union Now on Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a rallying cry to workers aiming to take power back from billionaires. Workers involved in high-profile union organizing efforts in recent years, including from Amazon and Starbucks, also appeared. The Union Now campaign is co-led by Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, who is slated to give the keynote at this year's UCLA Strategic Labor Research Conference in August. 

The Guardian 

Michael Sainato

UC WORKERS

UC Patient Care and Service Workers Plan Open-Ended Strike Starting Next Month

KQED

Farida Jhabvala Romero

LOS ANGELES LABOR ACTION

Los Angeles Schools Strike Narrowly Averted in Last-Minute Deal



The New York Times

Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan

WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY

As Worker Silicosis Deaths Mount, GOP Moves to Shield Companies From Liability

Capital & Main

Semantha Raquel Norris

HIGHER ED WORKERS

Can a New Pact Help Higher-Ed Workers Secure Better Pay?

Chronicle of Higher Education

Adrienne Lu

IRLE IN THE NEWS

LOS ANGELES LABOR ACTION

Los Angeles Teachers Secure Hefty Raise in Standoff With District

The Wall Street Journal

Paul Kiernan and Roshan Fernandez

Ft. Toby Higbie, IRLE Director

LOS ANGELES LABOR ACTION

Anxiety, trepidation and planning as Los Angeles Unified faces its third major strike in seven years

Ed Source

Mallika Seshadri and Betty Márquez Rosales

Ft. Janna Shadduck-Hernandez, project director at UCLA Labor Center

LABOR HISTORY, ARTS & CULTURE

FILM AND TELEVISION

The labor economics of 'Alien' — and its lessons for inequality on Earth

Planet Money NPR

Greg Rosalsky

MUSIC

A musical project sheds light on Boston's Black labor history

WBUR

Amelia Mason

POWER FROM THE PAST!

The Memory Work Research Initiative (MWRI) engages community partners, activists, scholars and students in a thoughtful process of collecting, preserving and sharing the rich history of organizing in Southern California. The MWRI strives to establish collaborative modes of remembrance grounded in the IRLE’s commitment to advancing quality education and employment for all. 

“Alto Prop 187,” 1994

On May 28, 1994, Justice for Janitors organized a “March and Rally for the Respect and Dignity of Immigrant Rights” in Boyle Heights. The march coincided with the announcement that an extreme anti-immigrant proposition, Prop 187, would appear on the November ballot. Members gathered to defend immigrants’ “right to live in peace with justice!” The campaign to prevent the passage of Proposition 187 ignited a wave of solidarity and organizing in Southern California. The campaign strengthened the ties between the labor and immigrant rights movements and united diasporic communities from across the region in defense of immigrants. Reflecting that convergence, Justice for Janitors chose to stage its march in Boyle Heights, often referred to as the “Ellis Island of the West” because it had been home to immigrants from all over the world in the early 20th century. Learn more about Justice for Janitors on the Memory Work website. 

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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.