IRLE's Quarterly Newsletter | |
UCLA Labor Center staff and labor studies faculty members at Paul Schrade Library with labor icon Dolores Huerta below Judy Baca’s mural “Seeing Through Others Eyes.” Photo: Citlalli Chávez-Nava/ UCLA IRLE. | |
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We are wrapping up another eventful year at the IRLE and looking forward to a summer packed with educational events. The culmination of our spring quarter was the graduation ceremony for our fabulous Labor Studies undergraduate students. Our keynote speaker, Senator Maria Elena Durazo, delivered an inspirational talk reflecting on her long career advancing worker justice, and two of our students delivered moving speeches of their own. Earlier in the spring, I joined a team from the Labor Center, Labor Studies, LOSH, and the IRLE in Mexico City to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity Center and engaged with researchers from three new labor centers based in Mexican universities.
Although we'll slow down over the July 4th holiday, we'll be back at work this summer with our first UC Strategic Labor Research Conference, as well as large contingents in our Labor Summer and Dream Summer programs. Our students will also be enjoying classes on worker centers, labor law, and applied research.
On behalf of all of us at the IRLE, I wish you a happy, productive, and restful summer.
Sincerely,
Tobias Higbie
Director, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
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Tobias Higbie
Director, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
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• IRLE Director Tobias Higbie, received the Chancellor’s Award for Community Engaged Scholars for his project: “Out of the Archives Into the Streets: Community-Engaged Learning for History and Labor Studies.” The project which will result in a new undergraduate course will focus on two main themes: activist and organizational genealogies and social movement geographies. More coverage coming soon. | |
• Our team is gearing up to host the first-annual UC Strategic Labor Research Conference led by UCLA Labor Studies Chair, Chris Zepeda-Míllan, July 14-16. Registration for the event is now closed but learn more about the event here. | |
• The UCLA Labor Center just returned from a binational convening in Mexico City focused on advancing cross-border collaborations that promote labor organizing, policy advocacy and academic research. Read highlights from the trip here. | |
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•June 25 marked the first day of the opening retreat for 40 fellows that form part of UCLA’s inaugural Labor Summer Fellowship. Shortly after, the 13th annual Dream Summer launched with 77 fellows. Led by the Dream Resource Center, both initiatives link participants with labor and movement organizations and provide unique leadership development opportunities with organizations moving the needle on social and economic justice in California and across the nation.
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• In April, the UCLA Labor Center, invited by labor icon, Dolores Huerta, coordinated a remembrance event for union and political activist, Paul Schrade. Review event coverage here. | |
• POWER in Workforce Development Project Manager, Ana Luz Gonzalez-Vasquez, shared strategies and opportunities to amplify worker voices as part of a plenary at the High Road Training Partnership Summit in Sacramento. | |
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• Gonzalez-Vasquez also moderated a panel on what funders and institutional actors can do to create the conditions for greater community participation in inclusive regional economic development to achieve more equitable outcomes at Horizons in New Orleans.
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• The Dream Summer Fellowship Crowdfunding Spark Campaign was a hit! With a goal of $13,000 in honor of 13 years of the Dream Resource Center, the campaign surpassed its goal -- raising $15,724! | |
UCLA LOSH (Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program) | |
• HARRT continues to coordinate a variety of events, talks and a variety of other activities, visit this unit’s events page to learn more. | |
• During Spring quarter, Labor Studies hosted three career development workshops focused on career pathways within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations. Check out event photos here. | |
• On May 1, Labor Studies joined the May Day Coalition for the 2023 Los Angeles May Day March. This year’s theme was: “Solidarity is Power: Right to Unionize, Right to Strike, Right to Housing, and Right to Citizenship.” Check event photos here. | |
• On May 24, Labor Studies hosted a special film screening of “Dignidad: California Domestic Workers’ Journey for Justice!” in collaboration with the California Domestic Workers Coalition. This documentary follows domestic workers as they organize for workplace protections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out event photos here. | |
• On May 26, we hosted our first Labor @ UCLA Research Summit where selected students presented past or current work developed for a capstone, honors thesis, or other Labor Studies and related classes. Check out event photos here. | |
• On June 5th, we hosted a Labor Speaker series event, "Labor and the Politics of Inflation, Past and Present" with Samir Sonti. Read a recent piece by Sonti on inflation in relation to collective bargaining, here. | |
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UCLA Labor Center Project Director Gaspar Rivera-Salgado spoke with La Jornada, on the need to reconceptualize migrants as actors with strong ties to both the communities they reside within the U.S. and their communities of origin in Mexico and as critical players in a more integrated North American region.
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LAist spoke with UCLA Labor Center Project Director Victor Narro on the importance of teaching youth about wage theft. Narro, spoke on how his students are able to use their knowledge to help their family members facing wage theft.
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KPCC reported on the recent victory for the Opportunity for All campaign. After protests by students outside of the UC Regents meeting, the Board of Regents voted unanimously to create a working group to agree on a plan to allow undocumented students to be hired for on-campus jobs.
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UCLA Labor Center Project Director Victor Narro spoke with Spectrum News 1 on the recent unionized strippers at the Star Garden Topless Bar in North Hollywood. Narro describes how the unionization effort is part of a larger trend of union resurgence and worker solidarity.
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From the Memory Work Los Angeles Files | |
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. | |
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In September 2006, UNITE HERE Local 11 organized what was likely the largest act of civil disobedience in Los Angeles History. Union members, faith leaders, elected officials, and community allies joined in a large march to protest low wages at corporate hotels along Century Blvd outside of Los Angeles International Airport.
The protest demonstrated the union’s ability to build a broad coalition in support of worker and immigrant rights at a time when the union was negotiating with hotel employers over a new contract.
Building on the themes of the spring 2006 immigrant rights marches, Century Blvd. marchers also evoked the civil rights movement. The slogan “I am a Human Being” echoed the famous message Memphis sanitation workers strikers of 1968, “I am a Man.” Over 300 demonstrators were arrested by Los Angeles Police and bused to Van Nuys for processing. Produced by UNITE-HERE Local 11, this film combines TV news footage, interviews, and street scenes to document the union’s mass action on Century Blvd. Watch here.
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Job Opportunities at the IRLE | |
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UCLA LOSH is hiring a Project Coordinator - The coordinator will oversee LOSH training initiatives designed to promote hazard awareness, injury and illness prevention, skills building, and leadership development among workers in Southern California. UCLA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Learn more here. Applications will be accepted through July 8, 2023.
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This newsletter was published by IRLE's communications team. Media inquiries for the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and its labor experts can be sent to citlallichavez@ucla.edu.
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Read previous IRLE Newsletters here.
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