James Irvine Foundation grants UCLA Labor Center $2.6 million

The UCLA Labor Center has received a three-year grant of $2.6 million from the James Irvine Foundation to support research, policy, education and youth leadership development to advance worker justice.

The grant will support the UCLA Labor Center’s core operations to support black, immigrant, and women workers, as well as to promote a new generation of youth leadership, including undocumented students. The work will also enhance the UCLA Labor Center’s extensive labor and community partnerships to conduct cutting-edge research and policy analysis to address economic and racial disparities.

“We are deeply appreciative of the Irvine Foundation’s leadership in California to advance worker rights, especially in this period of dynamic resurgence of worker organizing and resistance,” said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center.

The James Irvine Foundation has been a strong partner of the UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC Merced Labor Centers and has made it a priority to provide opportunities for all the people of California. This investment comes at a time of expansion of Labor Centers on all nine University of California campuses, and enhanced educational and research initiatives focused on economic and racial justice. The funding also will support a new generation of students and youth who are engaged in worker rights activities. The Irvine Foundation has been an ally in the launch of the first statewide Labor Summer program in 2023, and has made special commitments to underserved regions and underserved populations of California.

For more information, please contact the UCLA Labor Center Development Director Melissa Mooney at mrmooney@irle.ucla.edu.