April 2026 Edition

Each month, we spotlight faculty, staff, students, and alumni whose work, research, and advocacy are shaping public conversations and appearing in the media. From interviews and op-eds to feature stories, this series highlights the impact of our community in local, national, and international outlets.

This edition features highlights from April, including recent media appearances, published pieces, and more. Look out for a new roundup at the end of each month!

Tip: Click on the photo or title to read the full media mention.

Which Democrats Killed the Bill for Farmworkers Rights?

When the National Labor Relations Act was passed two years later, farmworkers were purposefully excluded from the law’s federal protections to gain support from Jim Crow Democrats, and remain without them to this day. A Seattle field examiner for the newly-established National Labor Relations Board found in 1938 that Yakima’s vigilante farmers were associated with the state’s fascist pro-Nazi Silver Shirts affiliate, of which Yakima police chief Harold Robinson was “one of the leading spirits,” according to Trevor Griffey of the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project.

The Stranger

Hunter Pauli

Los Angeles Teachers Secure Hefty Raise in Standoff With District

Management can’t pit different groups of workers against each other during contract negotiations, he said. “We can see this as part of a broader trend of the labor movement to try to get some strategic leverage,” Tobias Higbie said of the unions’ alignment.



The Wall Street Journal

Paul Kiernan and Roshan Fernandez

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

“There’s been a really deep response by teachers staying after school, going the extra mile, to walk their students home, to pick them up, to be out front every single morning greeting them, making sure they’re safe,” said Janna Shadduck-Hernández. “I think there’s even more solidarity with teachers and with the cafeteria and the bus drivers and classified workers than ever before.”

Ed Source

Mallika Seshadri and Betty Márquez Rosales

The Calling 🎙

“The calling is a coming back to something that has been a part of your own tradition and your own history and herstory. Finding that calling is a way to find yourself. It’s a calling forward and it’s a calling back.” – Saba Waheed

Frequencies of Change Media

Hosted and produced: Veena Hampapur and Saba Waheed

Power from the Past: Inspiring organizing in the present and future

“In the past, Memory Work digital content has been used in a variety of ways. We’ve seen photographs and articles picked up and placed in union newsletters or posted to social media. The oral histories series we produced in partnership with UNITE HERE Local 11 was developed into an organizing training program.” – Tobias Higbie

UCLA Institute for Research on Labor & Employment

Willa Needham

Fighting ‘degradation’ of UC education: UC-AFT on negotiation proposals

"Trevor Griffey is not alone – under 20% of UC-AFT members have full-time appointments, said Caroline Luce, UC-AFT’s communications chair. Minimum appointment hours are one of the things the union has discussed including in its ongoing negotiations for a new contract with the University, Griffey added."

Daily Bruin

Josephine Murphy

Have a media mention to share? Send it to Marcos Ruiz-Rojas at marcosruiz1999@ucla.edu.

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