[Poscgrad] Expand Labor Research and Education: UC Worker Rights Policy Collaborative

[Marissa Brookes]

Dear Political Science Graduate Students,

Prof. Ellen Reese (Sociology) and I are part of a statewide effort to
support the expansion of Labor Research and Education within the University
of California as we enter the final months of California budget
negotiations. We hope that this will provide much needed financial support
to expand capacity at UC Riverside and other UC campuses. If successful, it
could help us to create a UC Labor Center at UCR, which would facilitate more
applied labor research and education projects in the Inland Empire and
surrounding areas. *If you are willing, please consider signing this
sign-on letter
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFIVwa6i9TwdWBFtKSSwE_sBh9YKZ8SvWuPyi32-AhfVGZCA/viewform>*
 and sharing this with any colleagues, allies, organizations, and
list-serves that you think might support this effort too. All interested
individuals and organizations are welcome to sign it (as either an
individual or an organization). I appreciate you taking the time to
consider adding your name.

MB

P.S. See below for more information on the University of California Worker
Rights Policy Collaborative and for the content of the letter (also
attached).

-----------------

Dear Friends and Allies:



The UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Merced Labor Centers and related institutes,
along with the labor occupational safety and health programs, are seeking
the support of the California Legislature to allocate $12 million in
ongoing annual funding to expand labor research, education and service
throughout the University of California.



*We are requesting your support for this **linked sign-on letter*
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HnD1gd5Ks9u4PpBKIrVfu-FEzOF7mKyV/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116923181254914982441&rtpof=true&sd=true>*
which
speaks to why the elected leadership of the State of California should
support this new University of California Worker Rights Policy
Collaborative. *The much-needed additional funding will be put to work
immediately to address the state’s most pressing current and future
challenges facing the future of work in California, and will help to train
new generations of researchers, policymakers, and public servants.



*Could you please add your name, title, and organization to this campaign
of support for the $12 million allocation?** Please use this google form to
officially endorse the letter.* <https://forms.gle/muQX88EWvyUw9qud7>



For individual signers, the letter will indicate that titles and
organizations are listed for identification purposes only. Let us know if
we can list your organization as a supporter as well. If you want a sample
resolution to help secure the support of your organization, email your
request or any questions to: larry.frank.00 at gmail.com.



Thank you,



Steven Raphael, UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Abel Valenzuela, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Ken Jacobs, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Kent Wong, UCLA Labor Center

Ana Padilla, UC Merced Community and Labor Center

Laura Stock, UCB Labor Occupational Health Program

Kevin Riley, UCLA Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program


---------


Governor Gavin Newsom

Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon

Senate Budget Chair Nancy Skinner

Assembly Budget Chair Phil Ting

Senate Budget Sub-committee on Education Chair John Laird

Assembly Budget Sub-committee on Education Chair Kevin McCarty



Re: Funding for University of California Worker Rights Policy Collaborative



Dear Governor Gavin Newsom, President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Speaker
Anthony Rendon, Senators Nancy Skinner and John Laird, and Assembly Members
Phil Ting and Kevin McCarty:

The following organizations and individuals are writing to support the
statewide request for a $12 million ongoing annual augmentation of state
funding to expand labor research and education at the University of
California.

The COVID-19 pandemic amplified long-standing disparities as Black, Latinx,
low-wage, immigrant, and women workers faced greater losses of income and
exposure to workplace hazards with little to no safety net. The pandemic
also accelerated low-road approaches to economic development such as
subcontracting, temporary, and gig work that significantly lowered wages
and reduced workers’ economic security and bargaining power. We must
address these challenges with evidence-based policy solutions that center
working people, and collaborations with California worker organizations and
agencies that support workers.

While there are six major business and management schools within the
University of California, funding for labor research and education is very
small in comparison. The $12 million would be split between the established
Labor Centers at UC Berkeley ($2 million), UCLA ($2 million), UC Merced ($2
million), Institutes for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley
($1 million) and UCLA ($1 million), the UC Berkeley Labor Occupational
Health Program ($500,000), the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety & Health
Program ($500,000) and to support new initiatives on the other six UC
campuses ($3 million).

Labor Centers and the Labor Safety and Health programs have been
under-resourced, but have a distinguished track record of research
excellence, deep community engagement, and careful financial management.
Their policy research, technical assistance, and training programs played
an important role in supporting the California Dream Act and Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); expanding Medi-Cal to all
Californians regardless of immigration status; expanding the California
Earned Income Tax Credit to undocumented immigrant worker households;
Incubating Black Worker Centers; establishing California’s Secure Choice
retirement program; raising the minimum wage and labor standards in the
state and improving enforcement; developing a Jobs and Climate Action Plan
as requested by the state legislature; and strengthening the expanding High
Road Training Partnerships, to name a few examples.

These established programs, in cooperation with the California Labor
Federation and faculty and research staff on other UC Campuses, will
modernize and develop UC labor research and education to understand and
help guide emerging 21st century economic changes in the Inland Empire, the
Sacramento region, the Santa Cruz/Monterrey region, the Central Coast, San
Diego, Orange County and all of California in partnership with our UC
campuses.

Your support for this statewide request would strengthen the future of UC
labor research and education in the world’s fifth largest economy to
advance labor and employment policy, workforce development, a more
worker-centered economy, and the education and the training of future
generations of researchers, policymakers and public servants.



Sincerely,


--
Marissa Brookes
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
University of California, Riverside
Watkins 2223
(951) 827-5510
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