APRIL 2022
This Month at IRLE
News, unit spotlights, events, labor headlines and more.
IRLE Unit Spotlights

IRLE
Just in time for Oscar Sunday, our colleagues at the UCLA College released the annual Hollywood Diversity Report 2022, Part 1: FILM. Among other important findings, the data suggested people of color kept the movie industry afloat during the pandemic. Read more analysis, here.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we highlighted some of the women of the IRLE. We invite you to revisit the series on Instagram, here.
Labor Center

The Labor Center released: “Lives & Livelihoods: California’s Private Homecare Industry in Crisis,” which finds that the California homecare industry is facing critical issues that strain workers and consumers alike, amid growing demand that further intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the study here and watch the press event for the report release here.

The UCLA Labor Center’s Workforce Development team held an exciting webinar with worker centers across California to take a deeper dive into the results of their new study focused on worker centers’ approach to workforce development. Read more here.

CARE at Work's UCLA/LATTC course, We Gon' Be Alright: Developing the Next Generation of Black Organizers (LBR STD M115/AF AMER M115), has officially started for Spring Quarter!
The UCLA Dream Resource Center (DRC) focused on recruitment for the 2022-2023 Alumni Council, continued preparations for Dream Summer 2022 and continued the search for its next director.

LOSH
LOSH Director, Kevin Riley, spoke at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health’s “Bruins Being Bold” speaker series in honor of César Chávez Day which examined the connections between work and health.

Riley discussed LOSH initiatives focused on promoting workplace safety and health training opportunities for workers in high-risk occupations in Southern California. Watch here.
HARRT

Upcoming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), planning for the future of work and organizational behavior events are now listed on HARRT’s website, more information here.


Labor Studies

UCLA labor studies highlighted Britt Samara's independent research project on the challenges facing parent workers who are currently attending institutions of higher education.

The labor studies team also highlighted Jasmin Castaneda's internship with Building Skills Partnership, an organization that improves the lives of property service workers in low-wage industries and their families, as part of our #InternshipFriday/#FellowshipFriday series.
For Women's History Month, labor studies students and staff members celebrated women who have inspired their labor studies journeys. To see responses, visit the UCLA Labor Studies Instagram feed.
IRLE Stories
In early March, we wrote about a recent class lecture featuring the Labor Center’s ReWork Radio podcast and its co-hosts. The lecture, presented in Labor Studies 152: Work, Social Justice, and Arts, unpacked how show producers use storytelling to present complex labor issues to a wide audience. Read all about the show and the class here.
To fill critical language gaps among Indigenous workers in Los Angeles, the Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) program co-produced these COVID-19 workplace safety educational videos in five local Indigenous languages. Watch the videos and read about this project here.
As part of our Women’s History Month series, we reshared a popular opinion piece by UCLA alumna and current Labor Center communications staff member Lesly Ayala. Ayala fused together personal experiences and Labor Center research to highlight the financial, health and housing insecurities facing student workers. Read the piece here.
In honor of César Chavez Day, we interviewed labor studies faculty about Chávez’s life and legacy. Read the full interview here.
In this labor studies alumni profile, alumnus Miguel Rodriguez discussed how his personal connection to Oxnard and his experiences as a non-traditional student informs his work as a Community Outreach Manager for the Port of Hueneme, where he advocates for maritime-sector workers. Read this profile here.
IRLE in the Headlines
CARE at Work’s recent study: “Essential Stories: Black Worker COVID-19 Economic Health Impact Survey,” surveyed 2,000 Black workers and details unemployment rates among Black workers, lack of systemic support and the discriminatory practices they face in the workplace was featured by The Times of San Diego, Black Voices News, The Los Angeles Sentinel and Insider.  

UCLA Labor Center researcher Kendy Rivera Cárdenas was highlighted by the UCLA Newsroom for her participation in overseeing the union election of over 6,000 General Motors workers in Mexico this February.

The UCLA Labor Center and DREAM Resource Center’s report “Resource Accessibility Across the University of California Campuses Through Undocumented Students’ Experiences”, created in partnership with the Undocumented Student-Led Network, was the topic of this Daily Bruin article, and features interviews with report co-authors and DRC staff. The report, which was published in February, details the obstacles undocumented students face across UC Campuses, such as the difficulties in accessing financial aid. 

The UCLA Labor Center’s February report: "California’s Hero Labor Law: The Private Attorneys General Act Fights Wage Theft and Recovers Millions from Lawbreaking Corporations" was highlighted in the American Prospect as part of their story on an upcoming Supreme Court case which could have major implications for how labor laws are enforced.

More headlines: 






IRLE Upcoming Events
Thursday, April 7: The UCLA Labor Center and in partnership with UNITE HERE Local 11, will present a historical archive and oral history project featuring stories of hotel and restaurant employees and organizers who contributed to asserting greater worker power for these industries in Los Angeles. IRLE Associate Director and Labor Studies Faculty Chair Tobias Higbie will be a guest speaker at the event. Learn more and register here. 

Thursday, April 7: UCLA Labor Studies will host a virtual hangout featuring a conversation with Julio Chavez, Policy Fellow for the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and the real-world applications of a labor studies degree. Register here.

Saturday, April 9: UCLA Labor Studies will hold a virtual booth where you can learn about the Labor Studies Interdepartmental Program and meet staff and students. Join here.

Tuesday, April 12: The UCLA Alumni Career Network will host a webinar with featured speaker, Enrique Lopezlira, Ph.D., Director of the Low-Wage Work program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. The webinar focuses on the “Great Resignation” and how it has changed how workers are being viewed and treated. Register here.

Thursday, April 21: The IRLE and Labor Studies will host a book talk, Home Care Fault Lines: Understanding Tensions And Creating Alliances, online and in person with Cynthia Cranford from 5-6:15pm. This talk examines the tensions and possibilities for alliances that are essential for understanding, and challenging, inequalities in homecare. This event will be in-person (Haines Hall A25) and broadcasted live via Zoom. To RSVP to the Zoom broadcast, register here.

Thursday, May 12: The UCLA Labor Center and in partnership with Funders for a Just Economy, The James Irvine Foundation, and Workforce Matters, will host an informative panel and strategy conversation hosted for philanthropic and funder partners focused on linking workforce development, grassroots worker power and racial and economic justice. More information is coming soon.
General labor reads, listens, research etc.
This must-read article documents how two best friends beat Amazon to form the first successful organizing effort at the warehouse. According to the piece, on their path to victory, “the union leaders posted TikTok videos, made outdoor s’mores and sang along to hip-hop and Marvin Gaye. When workers faced family crises, the budding union prayed. One fired employee became homeless, and the group set up a fund-raising campaign.” Read the full article here.

On the 111th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, this hyperlocal piece documented commemorative events that honored the 146 mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women garment workers who died in this fire while trapped in the factory. This tragic event on March 25, 1911, marked a turning point for labor laws and improved workplace standards. Read the full story here. 

In this interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Reverend James Lawson Jr. discussed his recently-released book: “Revolutionary Nonviolence: Organizing for Freedom” and how we might apply nonviolent lessons of past struggles for justice to our national and global challenges today. Read the interview here. 

In this interview Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, discussed the launch of a back-to-basics mutual aid initiative that aims to address hunger, housing insecurity and other community needs. Read the interview here.

Other headlines of interest: 





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.
On April 6, 2000, this editorial was published in La Opinion highlighting the Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles.

The writer argues that the janitors’ demands are modest, and that their aggressive campaign
reflects a broad dissatisfaction with
the power structure in LA.
IRLE's Monthly Highlights is published by IRLE's communications. 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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