Labor Studies

UFW Meet & Greet and Support
2024-04-24 14:00 - 15:00 UTC | Bruin Reception Room
Join us on April 24th at 2pm PT at UCLA Ackerman Union, Bruin Reception Room for a meet & greet and support for the United Farm Workers (UFW).
You will get the opportunity to meet & greet UFW President Teresa Romero.
General ticket admission: $25
Student ticket admission: $15
Venmo: @sffw_ucla
Funds will support UFW farmworker organizing
Contact: larry.frank.00@gmail.com

Career Development Workshops within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations
2024-04-23 14:00 - 15:30
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) is hiring! Join UCLA Labor Studies and the UCLA Labor Center to learn more about career opportunities within the LCO and Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) to support their mission of improving working conditions for California’s workers.
This winter and spring, the UCLA Labor Center will lead workshops to provide students with resources for preparing state employment applications. The workshops will break down the application process, teach best practices for applications, and provide time for students to ask questions about the process and start working on their applications. A member of the LCO team will also talk about their experience and path to the LCO.
The workshops will include a resume workshop, so please come to the session with a completed resume.
Workshop Date: April 23rd @ 2-3:30pm
Location: Zoom
RSVP HERE.
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Check out the current job listings here: calcareers.gov

Job control number: JC-425332 or click here
Job control number: JC-425361 or click here
Job control number: JC-425373 or click here

Thinking Gender 2024: “Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias”
2024-03-01 08:30 - 18:00 | James West Alumni Center
UCLA’s CSW|Barbra Streisand Center presents 34th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference on Friday, March 1st, 2024.
Thinking Gender 2024’s conference theme, “Dystopian Realities, Feminist Utopias,” considers what it means to live in the cataclysmic wake of racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and neoliberalism. At the same time, the theme celebrates how feminist, queer, and BIPOC scholarship, activism, and art enact utopias by imagining alternatives to hegemonic structures.
The theme seeks to explore how dystopianism serves as an apt metaphor to explore and critique social and political issues related to gender, race, class, and sexuality and how utopianism is an ethical mandate to imagine a better present and future.
IRLE is a co-sponsor of this event.
Date: March 1, 2024
Time: 8:30am – 6:00pm
Location: James West Alumni Center, The Collins Conference Room
RSVP HERE.

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with the #Opportunity4All Campaign!
2024-02-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Bunche Hall 3153
Join us on Wednesday, February 28th between 12 pm to 1 pm for a coffee chat with members of the #Opportunity4All campaign!
This is a casual event for Labor Studies students to learn about ways to support undocumented students and find ways to become involved.
Date: Wednesday, February 28th
Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: Bunche Hall 3153

Labor Studies Speaker Series: Heather Berg
2023-12-01 16:00 - 17:30 | 4320 Public Affairs Building
Heather Berg writes about work, sex, and social struggle. Her 2021 book, Porn Work, explores workers’ creative strategies for surviving (and sometimes thriving) in an industry in crisis. Winner of the Working-Class Studies Association’s C.L.R. James “best book” award, it locates porn workers as experts on the politics of precarity. Her current book project, Lumpen Theory: Notes from the Sex Worker Left, engages anti-capitalist sex workers’ political thought on the family, class, the state, and violence. Berg is the editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly special issue “Reading Sex Work.” Her writing on sexual labor, gig work, and feminist political economy appears in Signs, WSQ, Feminist Studies, and Critical Historical Studies, among others. A graduate of UC-Santa Barbara’s Feminist Studies PhD program, she is assistant professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Talk Title: Sex Workers, Against Work
Description: “Sex Workers, Against Work” surveys Berg’s research on sex workers’ struggles for labor justice now and a world beyond work in the future. The talk moves from porn workers’ interventions on the set shop floor to anti-capitalist sex workers’ critical encounters with the civilian labor Left.
RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/qPxD1tqBE0
Event Location: In-Person + Zoom
Public Talk: 4-5:30 pm
In-Person: Labor Studies Speaker Series events will take place at the Public Affairs Building 4320. Coffee and water will be served.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92337485806?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 923 3748 5806
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Professor Victor Narro
2023-11-21 14:00 - 15:00 | Kaplan Hall A26
Join us on Tuesday, November 21st from 2-3 pm in Kaplan A26 for a coffee chat with activist, Labor Center project director, and Labor Studies Professor, Victor Narro
Professor Victor Narro is an experienced activist, with thirty years as a leader in the immigrant and labor rights movements. Additionally, he has worked as a labor/immigration attorney for just as long and also serves as the UCLA Labor Center’s project director. During the academic term, he teaches at the UCLA Law School as well as to Labor Studies undergraduates. Each summer, his course, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Self-Care & Social Justice, draws in students from all over looking to avoid burnout while organizing.
Date: Tuesday, November 21st
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Kaplan Hall A26

Port of Los Angeles Field Trip
2023-11-09 08:00 - 17:00 | Port of Los Angeles
UCLA Labor Studies and @ILWU Local 13 invite students to a free worker-centered tour of the Port of Los Angeles.
You will have the opportunity to take a boat tour of the Port, view memorials to workers on the waterfront, visit a union hall, and learn about the role of unions in the logistics industry. Lunch and transportation to/ from UCLA will be provided for free.
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2023
Location: Port of Los Angeles
RSVP: bit.ly/LS_LAPort
Schedule:
7:45am: Arrive at UCLA Gateway Plaza
8am-9:15am: Bus to Port of Los Angeles
9:30-10:30am: Port of LA Boat Tour
10:30-11:15am: Visit Harry Bridges Memorial in San Pedro
11:30-2:15pm: Visit ILWU Local 13 Memorial Hall (lunch included)
2:30-4pm: Bus to UCLA Gateway Plaza

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with the Labor Studies Student Union (LSSU)
2023-11-07 14:00 - 15:00 | Kaplan Hall A26
Join us on Tuesday, November 7th from 2-3 pm for a coffee chat with leaders from the Labor Studies Student Union (LSSU).
This will be a space to not only learn more about the LSSU, what it stands for, why it was created, and what the future of this union is, but also a space to give feedback on the Labor Studies program and what you’d like to see from us!
Date: Tuesday, November 7th
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Kaplan Hall A26

Labor Studies 10 presents: #HotLaborSummer Panel
2023-10-24 15:00 - 17:00 | UCLA Fowler Auditorium
Join Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center, in conversation with Los Angeles labor community organizers who led the fight for workers this summer. Speakers will include strike captains from UNITE-HERE, SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and SEIU 721, who will discuss their experiences on the picket line.
Learn how a #HotLaborSummer can transform the American labor movement from the ground up and what fights remain ahead for workers in 2024 and beyond.
Date: Tuesday, October 24th
Time: 3pm
Location: UCLA Fowler Auditorium – 103B / Zoom
RSVP: bit.ly/LS_hotlaborsummer
*Light refreshments will be served

Screening and Talkback: "Backstreet to the American Dream"
2023-10-10 18:00 - 20:00 | James West Alumni Center
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and in partnership with UCLA Labor Studies, enjoy a screening of the award-winning documentary “Backstreet to the American Dream,” directed and written by Patricia Nazario ’91, with executive producer/Medal of Freedom recipient Dolores Huerta.
This modern-day look at the classic American Dream is done through the quintessential 21st Century entrepreneurial endeavor — food trucks. “Backstreet to the American Dream” is a deep dive into the birthplace of the $2 billion global industry, Los Angeles. The 90-minute feature profiles two trucks and juxtaposes the experiences of American entrepreneurs and Mexican immigrants.
After the screening, enjoy a talkback from the filmmaker, the protagonist and two faculty members at the UCLA Labor Center who were featured in this film.
Date: Tuesday, October 10th
Time: 6-8pm
Location: James West Alumni Center
RSVP: CLICK HERE
Meet the Speakers:

Patricia Nazario ’91 is an international and Congressional Award distinguished journalist. She was on assignment for the National Public Radio affiliate, KPCC, in Los Angeles, when she realized the food truck revolution was a game-changer and began producing the independent bilingual documentary for theatrical release “Backstreet to the American Dream.”

Gaspar Rivera Salgado is a project director at UCLA Labor Center, as well as a core faculty member of the Labor Studies interdepartmental program, under the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He is also the director of the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies. He teaches classes on work, labor and social justice in the U.S. and immigration issues.
He also directs the Institute for Transnational Social Change and has extensive experience as an independent consultant on transnational migration, race and ethnic relations,and diversity training for large organizations.

Victor Narro is a nationally known expert on immigrant rights and low-wage workers. He has been involved with immigrant rights and labor issues for almost 40 years and is currently a project director for the UCLA Labor Center. Teaching classes that focus on immigrant rights, low-wage workers, the labor movement, and spirituality, mindfulness and self-care in social justice activism, Narro is a core faculty member for Labor Studies. He also teaches courses in the Public Interest Law Program at UCLA’s School of Law.

Doña Guillermina, is the owner/operator of El Pescadito, a mariscos lonchera. Guillermina was born in Nayarit, Mexico, and is the oldest of nine siblings. In 1976, she gave birth to her first child, Felipe. Shortly after arriving to the U.S., she found work on a food truck. She bought her own in 1982 and has been parking in the same neighborhood ever since.

Writing Workshop for Labor Studies: A Reading and Celebration
2023-06-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Rolfe Hall 3129
Please join us for a celebration featuring Labor Studies students reading their original work, including poetry, song, memoir, fiction, and research! This event is part of LBRSTD 188-4, Writing Workshop for Labor Studies, a creative writing class for Labor Studies majors, Labor Studies minors, and other interested students.
Special Guest: Author Saba Waheed, Research Director, UCLA Labor Center
Date: Tuesday, June 6th, 6:30-8:00 pm.
Location: Rolfe Hall 3129 / Zoom
Refreshments will be provided by Labor Studies. Hope to see you there!

Labor Speaker Series | Labor and the Politics of Inflation, Past and Present
2023-06-05 14:00 - 15:30 | Chicano Studies Research Library/Zoom
Topic: Labor and the Politics of Inflation, Past and Present with Dr. Samir Sonti
Date: Monday, June 5th
Time: 2 PM – 3:30 PM PT
Location: Chicano Studies Research Library/Zoom
*Zoom information will be sent out in reminder email after you RSVP
Join us with Dr. Samir Sonti to discuss how the arrival of inflation during the pandemic has spurred considerable debate over both the causes of rising prices and the optimal means of achieving price stability. In the mid-twentieth century, inflation stood as one of the most contested political issues, and it was one with which the labor movement was, by necessity, deeply engaged.

Behind the Scenes/Unheard Voices of the Strike
2023-05-04 17:00 - 18:30 | Public Affairs 1246
In the Fall of 2022, graduate student workers from the University of California participated in one of the largest strikes in higher education history. As a result, student workers learned valuable lessons about feeding and sustaining one another on and off the picket lines.
Join us for a panel discussion about the work that often goes unrecognized behind the scenes with opening remarks by Rosie Stockton and Da In Choi.

Date: Thursday, May 4th
Time: 5:00-6:30pm
Location: Public Affairs 1246

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Danette Garcia
2023-04-27 16:00 - 17:30 | Bunche Hall 3164
Topic: Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Danette Garcia, LA City Attorney Director of Community & Government Affairs and UCLA Labor Studies alum
Date: Thursday, April 27th
Time: 4 PM
Location: Bunche Hall 3164
Join us for a Coffee Chat with LA City Attorney Director of Community & Government Affairs and UCLA Labor Studies alum, Danette Garcia and moderated by Micaela Aragon, Labor Studies major and communications work-study. This will be an informal space for students to ask questions about her position, her journey to working for the LA City attorney, experience working for campaigns, and how Labor Studies played a role in her journey to where she is today.

Garment Workers Speak Out!
2023-04-27 14:00 - 16:00
When the pandemic hit, US retailers canceled clothing orders abroad, resulting in millions of garment workers being laid off without pay or severance. On April 27, Chhorpesal Chhom and Sreymich Hai – who were fired from Hulu Garment factory in Cambodia, where they sewed products for Amazon and Adidas – will visit the UCLA campus to speak about the wage theft and retaliation they endured, and the need for accountability from major brands. Come speak directly with workers who produce your clothing and to learn about how you can support garment workers in their struggle for justice.
When: April 27, 2pm
Where: UCLA campus (RSVP for info) – livestream on zoom
RSVP: nikesteals.com/ucla

Information Session: Career Opportunities at the Labor Commissioner's Office and Department of Industrial Relations
2023-03-07 11:30 - 13:00 | Haines Hall 144
Topic: Career Opportunities at the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations
Date: Tuesday, March 7th
Time: 11:30am – 1:00pm PT
Location: Haines Hall Rm. 144
Join us on March 7th, 2022 with California State Labor Commissioner, Lilia Garcia-Brower for an in-person information session on career opportunities and pathways within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations.
LUNCH PROVIDED*

Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Chris Zepeda-Millán, Chair of the UCLA Labor Studies Program
2023-03-01 13:30 - 14:30 | Public Affairs 2284
Topic: Labor Studies Coffee Chat with Chris Zepeda-Millán, Chair of the UCLA Labor Studies Program
Date: Wednesday, March 1
Time: 1:30 – 2:30 PM PT
Location: Public Affairs 2284
Join us on Wednesday, March 1, between 1:30 pm – 12:30 p.m. for a coffee chat with Chris Zepeda-Millán, Chair of the UCLA Labor Studies Program. This is a casual, informal event to allow Labor Studies students to connect with the Chair and the program overall.

We Gon' Be Alright Class Virtual Open House
2023-02-22 16:00 - 17:00
Topic: We Gon’ Be Alright Class Virtual Open House
Date: Wednesday, February 22nd
Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm PT
Location: Zoom
UCLA’s Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity (CARE) at Work in collaboration with the Labor Studies Department is excited to announce our Virtual Open House on Wednesday, February 22nd, 4:00 – 5:00 PM for CARE’s cross-campus course, We Gon’ Be Alright: Developing the Next Generation of Black Organizers.

Join us as we dive into the importance of labor and organizing in the greater movement for Black Worker Justice and explore new program partnerships (summer internship opportunities) offered by UCLA’s CARE.

Labor Speaker Series | “How To Make a Revolution: A Conversation About the Past, Present, and Future of Radical Labor” Book Talk
2023-02-14 10:00 - 12:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall
Topic: How To Make a Revolution: A Conversation About the Past, Present, and Future of Radical Labor with Christina Heatherton
Date: Tuesday, February 14
Time: 10 AM – 12 PM PT
Location: 10383 Bunche Hall (in-person) and on Zoom
Join Dr. Heatherton for a conversation about her book and what lessons it may contain for contemporary labor and movement organizing strategy. The Mexican Revolution was a global event that catalyzed international radicals in unexpected sites and struggles. From art collectives and farm worker strikes to prison “universities,” Arise! Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution (UC Press, 2022) considers how disparate revolutionary traditions merged in unanticipated alliances.
Moderated by: Maga Miranda, Doctoral Candidate in Chicana/o and Central American Studies.
ZOOM RSVP: bit.ly/laborspeaker-heatherton
In-Person RSVP:

Information Session: Career Opportunities at the Labor Commissioner's Office and Department of Industrial Relations (Cancelled)
2022-12-01 11:30 - 12:45 | 279 Haines Hall
Topic: Career Opportunities at the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations
Date: Thursday, December 1st Time: 11:30am – 12:45pm PT
Location: 279 Haines Hall
Join us on December 1st, 2022 with California State Labor Commissioner, Lilia Garcia-Brower for an in-person information session on career opportunities and pathways within the Labor Commissioner’s Office and Department of Industrial Relations.
LUNCH PROVIDED*

Summer Internship Opportunities for Graduate and Undergraduate UCLA Students at U.S. GAO: Information Session
2022-11-15 13:30 - 14:30
Topic: Summer Internship Opportunities for Graduate and Undergraduate UCLA Students at U.S. GAO Date: Tuesday, November 15 Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm PT Location: Zoom The U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency within the legislative branch that advises Congress about ways to make the federal government more efficient, effective, ethical, equitable, and responsive. Join us in this information session on summer internship opportunities for UCLA Graduate and Undergraduate Students at the U.S. GAO next summer! To RSVP: log in to Handshake and search for “U.S. Government Accountability Office Info Session” on November 15, 2022.
To join the meeting: CLICK HERE!

Labor Speaker Series | “Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras” Book Talk
2022-11-10 13:00 - 14:30 | UCLA Young Research Library Rm 11348
Topic: “Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras”
Book Talk Date: Thursday, November 10
Time: 1:00pm – 2:30pm PT
Location: UCLA Young Research Library, Presentation Room, Room 11348
Join us for a Book Talk with Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, author of Roots of Resistance: A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras. On May 1, 1954, striking banana workers on the North Coast of Honduras brought the regional economy to a standstill, invigorating the Honduran labor movement and placing a series of demands on the US-controlled banana industry. Their actions ultimately galvanized a broader working-class struggle and reawakened long-suppressed leftist ideals. The first account of its kind in English, Roots of Resistance explores contemporary Honduran labor history through the story of the great banana strike of 1954 and centers the role of women in the narrative of the labor movement. Drawing on extensive firsthand oral history and archival research, Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda highlights the complexities of transnational company hierarchies, gender and race relations, and labor organizing that led to the banana workers strike and how these dynamics continue to reverberate in Honduras today. Guest Speaker: Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda, Associate Professor of Chicana/o Latina/o Transnational Studies, Pitzer College

Symposium on Academic Labor
2022-10-31 12:30 - 13:45
Topic: Symposium on Academic Labor
Date: Monday, October 31st and Wednesday, November 2
Time: 12:30pm – 1:45pm PT
Location: Various
Why are the majority of college teachers low wage temps, and how can academic workers organize to fight back? Representatives from UAW 2865 and Higher Education Labor United will answer these and other questions about how labor activism on college campuses can contribute to the development of a more militant labor movement in the U.S.
Join us on Monday, Oct. 31 and Wednesday, Nov. 2 between 12:30–1:45 p.m. for a Symposium on Academic Labor hosted by Trevor Griffey in his LBR STD 188: Labor and Public Higher Education: Campus Workers, Working Students, and Public Good class.

Labor Speaker Series | “Is Formalization the Answer? Is Informality the Problem?” Waste Picker Rights Policy in São Paolo and Bogotá with Manuel Rosaldo
2022-10-13 15:00 - 16:30
Topic: “Is Formalization the Answer? Is Informality the Problem?” Waste Picker Rights Policy in São Paolo and Bogotá
Date: Thursday, October 13th
Time: 3:00pm – 4:30pm PT
Location: Luskin School of Public Affairs Faculty Lounge, Room 5391

Under what circumstances does the formalization of informal jobs lead to pro-worker outcomes, and when might formalization intensify workers’ exploitation or deprive them of work altogether? Drawing on 24 months of ethnographic field research, this presentation analyzes two ambitious efforts to integrate informal waste pickers into formal waste management. This research finds that formalization policies in Bogotá, Colombia elevated the incomes, conditions, and voice of thousands of waste pickers, whereas parallel efforts in the seemingly more favorable context of São Paulo, Brazil did not. Ultimately, these differential outcomes hinged on waste pickers’ levels of power to shape policy design and implementation.

Guest Speaker: Manuel Rosaldo, Assistant Professor of Labor Relations and Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University
