UCLA Labor Center

UCLA Labor Center
Established 1964 (1964)
Parent institution
 UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Los Angeles
Director Kent Wong
Administrative staff
 37 (2014)
Location Los Angeles, California, United States
Website www.labor.ucla.edu

The Labor Center is a research and extension department at the University of California Los Angeles focused on organized labor and labor rights.[1][2] It was created in 1964 as the Center for Labor Research and Education and is a unit of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.[3]

The department runs on a budget of about $4 million a year.[4]

History

As organized labor in the U.S. reached its height of influence after the Second World War, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Berkeley, California created industrial relations programs under the initiative of Governor Earl Warren. The Institutes were tasked with outreach to both employers and trade unions, but by the 1960s Labor felt itself the junior partner in the arrangement. An agreement between the California AFL-CIO and the University of California led in 1964 to the founding of Centers for Labor Research and Education at UCLA and UC Berkeley focusing on issues such as job displacement, the needs of white collar unions, reducing hours of work, and the problems of unemployment. In 2002, the Labor Center opened a downtown location overlooking MacArthur Park in a building that was formerly a union hall.[5] The Downtown Labor Center has supported groups such as the National Day Labor Organization Network, the California Construction Academy, and the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. The Labor Center is also home to the Dream Resource Center, an action research center focusing on issues of immigrant integration, particularly related to undocumented youth. Labor Center research has led to county and state actions to mitigate wage theft.[6]

Publications

  • Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities (2009). Annette Bernhardt et al.
  • Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity (2012). David Bacon. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.
  • Juntas de Conciliacion y Arbitraje en Mexico (2012). Fernando Herrera Lima, Editor. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.
  • Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles: the Failure of Employment and Labor Law for Low-Wage Workers (2010). Bernhardt et al.
  • Women’s Work: Los Angeles Homecare Workers Revitalize the Labor Movement (2009). Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Kent Wong, and Linda Delp: UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.
  • Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy (2010). Ruth Milkman, Joshua Bloom, and Victor Narro. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

References

  1. ↑ Kristen Taketa. "UCLA Downtown Labor Center celebrates 10th anniversary". Daily Bruin, 4 September 2012.
  2. ↑ Peter Dreier. "Labor Pains at UCLA". Huffington Post, 17 August 2009.
  3. ↑ UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, "History", http://www.labor.ucla.edu/about/history/, 2014, Web. 8 December 2014
  4. ↑ Charles Proctor. "Labor center fights threat of erasure". Daily Bruin, 17 January 2005.
  5. ↑ UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, "Origins, Downtown Labor Center", http://www.labor.ucla.edu/about/history/, 2014, Web. 8 December 2014
  6. ↑ "L.A. Councilmen push for ordinance to crack down on wage theft," Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-wage-theft-20140625-story.html
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