Young Worker Initiative
LAUSD School Board Incorporates Workers’ Rights into the School Day
News
Ana Luz González-Vásquez appointed Deputy Director of the UCLA Labor Center
Dr. González-Vásquez brings with her over 20 years of experience in qualitative and quantitative research, using a participatory and popular education approach to engage research participants in the conceptualization and production of knowledge.
Report
Overworked & Under Pressure: A Study of Supermarket Workers in Los Angeles and Orange County Koreatowns
A new report highlights how Koreatown supermarket workers experience low and stagnant wages, unsafe working conditions, lacking health care benefits, and verbal abuse.
2025 Annual Snapshot
Cultivating Community Resilience
Through paid fellowships, community training, and public storytelling, the UCLA Labor Center turned research into action and prepared students and worker leaders to lead the worker justice movement.
Report
Harm to Table: Vulnerability and Exploitation in Los Angeles County Meatpacking and Food Processing
Los Angeles County has long been a hub for meatpacking and food processing, but decades of corporate consolidation and deregulation have reshaped the industry. This report highlights how industry practices undermine health and safety, and workers’ rights.
Report
High Stakes: The State of the California Cannabis Workforce
This report shares important trends that confirm the potential of cannabis to contribute to California’s growth, well-being, and environmental change, as well as challenges that must be addressed head-on.
Blog Post
Training Peers about Rights on the Job
Teaching students about their rights on the job has deepened one student’s commitment to strengthening local communities, and hopes to continue this work through a career in local politics.
Blog Post
Victor Narro’s Journey in MacArthur Park at the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center
Victor Narro shares his journey throughout the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center—formerly known as the UCLA Downtown Labor Center—and how its central location in MacArthur Park has built a bridge between communities.
60 Years of Worker Justice
Established in 1964, the UCLA Labor Center advances cutting-edge research, education, and service guided by our core values: economic equity, racial and immigrant justice, and worker power and solidarity.
A Public University Belongs to the People
Through our signature approaches and methodology that employ research justice, narrative storytelling, student and leader-to-movement pathways, and culturally and racially responsive evaluation, we partner with workers, unions, worker centers, students, and impacted communities to advance economic justice across California, the nation and globally.
News
Re:Work Podcast at the UCLA Labor Center
Autoqueen Trilogy, Part II
In the second installment of the Autoqueen Trilogy, we revisit Mohana Sundari, a thirty-nine-year-old woman living in Tamil Nadu in southern India. Mohana is part of a small but growing group of women driving auto rickshaws in the capital city of Chennai. Part One traced Mohana’s vivid childhood memories, and in Part Two her story moves into adulthood – through marriage, motherhood, financial struggle, and personal loss.
Through it all, Mohana challenges the limitations placed on women. She continually finds ways to reclaim her power as she works to build a future for herself and her daughter – on her own terms. Listen at reworkradio.org or your preferred podcast platform.
Content Advisory: This episode includes references to domestic violence and sexual assault.
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