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Without funds, UCLA Labor Center might close

By Cristina Chang

June 7, 2009 9:00 p.m.

The fate of the UCLA Labor Program seems uncertain following recent budget cuts and economic hard times.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s line-item veto in September of statewide UC labor programs cut off funding for the program, which is composed of the UCLA Center on Labor Research and Education and UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

The funding was cut without any discussion and review, said Kent Wong, program director of the UCLA Center on Labor Research and Education.

“We feel it’s an unfair and unjustified move,” Wong added.

The current state budget does not allocate state funds for the Labor Program, said Chris Tilly, director of the UCLA Labor Institute.

For now, UC President Mark Yudof has restored most of the Labor Program’s funding through the internal allocation of university resources, Wong said.

Yudof provided one-year funding for the 2008-2009 fiscal year to aid the programs, but Wong said that the stability of the center is unclear.

“For this year, our funding was mostly restored, but our future is in jeopardy if we don’t get back in the state budget,” Wong said.

In response, students on campus have taken action to prevent the cuts.

The Student Workers Front, a student group that engages in advocacy and organizing for labor issues, stands in support of the labor center, said Lucia Lin, a third-year Asian American Studies student and member of the group.

Last month, the group held a day of action by organizing a rally in Meyerhoff Park, Lin said. It has also created an alliance of student organizations by writing a letter in support of funding restoration, lobbying state legislators in Sacramento and collecting petitions containing the names of about two hundred students and community members.

Wong said that he remains hopeful that the program’s funding will be restored.

“We think that if working people of California pay taxes to support the UC system, then we should provide a program that provides for their needs,” Wong said.

Tilly said that even if the state does not provide funding, the program would not necessarily close down, as it would still have some funding from grants, fundraisers and the university.

But he said that these sources would not be of the same scale as state funding.

The labor center has gained a national reputation in the field of labor studies, producing nationally recognized publications, Wong said.

He added that students have also been involved with the labor center and produced a book about undocumented students last year, which was the first of its kind.

In addition, the center has sponsored a Community Scholars program for 17 years, enabling groups of graduate students to work with community and labor leaders on research projects.

The UCLA Center on Labor Research and Education has been in existence since the 1960s. It aims to teach labor studies, conduct research, compose publications and engage in outreach work that addresses the needs and rights of workers.

The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment is the academic unit of Labor Studies Program. The institute works closely with the labor center and also had its state funding cut, Tilly said.

The institute was created in 1946 as a way of providing educational resources for the growing field of labor relations, Tilly said.

He added that there is no clean line between the labor center and the institute, although the labor center is more focused on outreach and the institute is more focused on research. The two programs interact through their joint efforts in running the Labor and Workplace Studies minor.

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Cristina Chang
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