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Weekly Labor Reads:

TOP STORY

Factory workers blame Trump’s tariffs for lost jobs

As midterm elections approach, a growing number of manufacturing workers who voted for Trump are voicing their dissatisfaction at his economic and trade policies, which they say have disrupted the flow of imports and exports, raised production costs and in some cases caused layoffs. Trump promised his tariff agenda would create a factory boom in the United States, but that has not come to pass. The sector has fewer employees than when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, though the U.S. added manufacturing jobs. More relevant than figures is voter sentiment, however, and in states with tight races, including Ohio, Iowa and Kansas, Trump seems to be losing popularity.

Los Angeles Times

Bernard Condon

LABOR ACTIONS

California looks to block state worker strike, asks labor agency to halt walkout

The Sacramento Bee

Corey Schmidt

UNION NEWS

United Auto Workers chief re-elected, now faces tough negotiations and US probe

The Guardian

Michael Sainato

AUTOMATION

These workers help train robots who could one day steal their jobs

NPR

Diaa Hadid and Omkar Khandekar

MIDTERM ELECTIONS

California’s proposed billionaire tax exposes rifts among labor unions

Los Angeles Times

Nicole Nixon

IRLE NEWS

NEW RESEARCH

Bossware Comes to California: The Impact of New Management Technologies on Workers and the Case for Policy Regulation

UCLA Labor Center

As policymakers debate how artificial intelligence could impact jobs and workers in the future, employers are increasingly using digital technologies to monitor workers, measure their performance, assign tasks and schedules, set the pace of work, and inform decisions about pay, discipline, and termination. These technologies—collectively known as “bossware”—combine electronic monitoring with algorithmic management. This report draws on a large body of existing social science and legal research, as well as 25 in-depth interviews with California workers. The evidence presented makes clear that the risks of unchecked bossware are not merely speculative, but already reshaping working conditions, undercutting established labor protections, and shifting power toward employers—often without workers’ knowledge or consent.

POWER FROM THE PAST!

Beginning in fall 2026, the Power from the Past weekly series highlights selections from IRLE's 80th anniversary timeline. Supported by the Memory Work Research Initiative (MWRI), the timeline commemorates historic milestones at the Institute, UCLA and the Los Angeles community.

1987 – Labor’s Immigrant Assistance Project

In the 2026-2027 academic year, the UCLA IRLE celebrates its 80th anniversary! Our new Power From the Past series brings you a selection from IRLE’s historical timeline each week.

1987 – Following the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the AFL-CIO of Southern California established LIAP (Labor’s Immigrant Assistance Project) to help union and non-union immigrant workers obtain legal status and/or apply for citizenship under the legislation’s amnesty protections. Nationally, the AFL-CIO lobbied aggressively for the bill to pass, but in Southern California, unions contributed nearly $1 million to fund LIAP’s legalization efforts, including hiring dozens of caseworkers and establishing an extensive workers’ education program. In addition to helping some 10,000 people access work permits and legal status, LIAP gave rise to the CA Immigrant Workers Association (CIWA), which brought thousands of immigrant workers into the labor movement.

Visit irle.ucla.edu/80th/timeline/ for more moments of IRLE, UCLA, and Los Angeles history

UPCOMING IRLE EVENTS

TODAY! Labor Strategies to Defend Immigrant Worker Rights Today

Date and Time: Friday, October 16, 2026, 10-11:30 am PDT

Location: Virtual

Part two of the IRLE’s “Meeting the Moment, Building the Movement” series brings together three leaders at the forefront of labor and community responses to the current militarized federal immigration campaign in cities across the U.S. Facing the largest deportation campaign since the 1950s, labor unions and their members, alongside allies in the immigrant rights movement, are taking creative, nonviolent action to defend immigrant communities. 

David Huerta, President of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West (USWW), Bernie Burnham, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, and Kurt Petersen, Co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, will join the IRLE to share their insights as leaders of the movement.

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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.