Solidarity S hines
60 Years of Building Worker Justice
2024 Celebration
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024
Solidarity S hines
60 Years of Building Worker Justice
Director’s Letter
The UCLA Labor Center exists because of a demand. In 1964, the California Labor Federation made a bold demand of the state of California—to set up a center within the university focused on providing research and education to the labor movement. In response, the University of California signed an agreement, and the UCLA and UC Berkeley Labor Centers were created. For 60 years since, we have stood as a trusted partner and ally to the labor movement. Today, our work remains integrally tied with the California labor movement, built around three main pillars:
RESEARCH JUSTICE
We strive to tell the stories of workers driving our city and state, providing trusted, worker-centered research for policymakers.
SCHOOLS-TO-MOVEMENT PATHWAYS
We create vital pathways that introduce our students to the labor movement and prepare them as future leaders.
FIELD BUILDING & NARRATIVE CHANGE
We respond to community needs, working in coalition to build strong movements and positive narratives of workers and our communities.
As a public institution, we firmly believe in serving the public good. Over the decades, we’ve expanded our programming in response to community needs, leveraging the university’s resources to create innovative models for other campuses.
The Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) program was established.
The Community Scholars program, founded in 1991, brought community partners into the classroom and helped build new coalitions and organizations.
In 2009, we launched the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, the first of its kind to address the structural barriers facing Black workers; by 2020, the Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity at Work (CARE at Work) was created to serve as the research arm of Black worker centers across California.
The Dream Resource Center, founded in 2010 after the U.S. Senate failed to pass the federal DREAM Act, continues to empower undocumented and immigrant youth and allies.
Our newest program, Prosperity, Opportunity, and Worker Equity Reimagined (POWER) in Workforce Development, documents models that build robust pathways for workers into quality jobs.
Next year, the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center will re-open its doors to the community. The recent $13 million expansion of six new UC labor centers marks the largest investment in labor research and education across the nation since 1964, allowing us to broaden our reach and impact across California. Internationally, our Global Solidarity continues cross-border solidarity exchanges with labor leaders and is supporting the launch of new labor centers.
But the work isn’t done. We continue to face oppressive, capitalistic systems that harm workers and our communities—here and abroad. In the spirit of our founding, we will continue to make demands: for dignity of work, the right to organize, and economic equity for all.
The UCLA Labor Center stands ready to face the future, armed with the trust of our community, the passion of our students, and the unwavering support of our labor partners. As we pass the torch to new generations of leaders, we invite you to join us in this ongoing journey of research, education, and advocacy for worker justice.
Saba Waheed Director, UCLA Labor Center
Land Acknowledgement
The UCLA Labor Center acknowledges the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) on which we gather together in community with one another. As we celebrate 60 years of advancing worker justice and immigrant rights, we honor and pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors), 'Ahihirom (Elders), and yochinem (relations) past, present and emerging and reaffirm our commitment to solidarity and justice for all.
Map image from Native-Land.ca
Honorary Committee
Lorena Gonzalez PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA LABOR FEDERATION, AFL-CIO
PRESIDENT, LA COUNTY FEDERATION OF LABOR, AFL-CIO
Yvonne Wheeler
Senator María Elena Durazo Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas
CALIFORNIA SENATE DISTRICT 28, CHAIR OF THE SENATE LABOR, PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AND RETIREMENT COMMITTEE Assemblymember
ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
Assemblymember
David Alvarez
Baba Akili
COMMUNITY ACTIVIST, INSTRUCTOR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IMMIGRANTS RISING
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 80
Iliana G. Perez, Ph.D
Andre Oliver
INITIATIVE DIRECTOR, THE JAMES IRVINE FOUNDATION
Alexandra Suh
CO-PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR WORKER POWER (CCWP); EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KOREATOWN IMMIGRANT WORKERS ALLIANCE (KIWA)
Sheheryar Kaoosji
CO-PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR WORKER POWER (CCWP); EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WAREHOUSE WORKER RESOURCE CENTER
Speakers
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez
LOS ANGELES CITY DISTRICT 1
Eunisses Hernandez is a community organizer, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, and a lifelong District 1 resident. Born and raised in Highland Park, she led campaigns, coalitions, and commissions that transformed local and statewide policy before running for City Council in 2021. Since taking office in December 2022, Councilmember Hernandez has prioritized a Care First agenda that focuses on investing in community care, workforce development, social services, and harm-reduction programs that help make our neighborhoods safer and healthier places for all Angelenos.
Mona Morales Recalde
NATIVE COMMUNITY ELECTED COMMISSIONER, LOS ANGELES NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN COMMISSION
Mona Morales Recalde is an active member of the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians Gabrieleno/Tongva, the First People of Los Angeles, where she was born and raised. She plays a key role in community outreach for her tribe, focusing on cultural preservation and education about culture and awareness of the Gabrieleno/Tongva. In addition to her work with the tribe, Mona serves on the Los Angeles Native American Indian Commission, where she advocates for the rights and visibility of Native American communities in the region.
Abel Valenzuela, Ph.D
DEAN, DIVISION OF SOCIAL SCIENCES PROFESSOR, CHICANO AND CENTRAL AMERICAN STUDIES, LABOR STUDIES, & URBAN PLANNING
Abel Valenzuela Jr. was appointed dean of social sciences effective May 2024. A member of the UCLA faculty since 1994, Valenzuela is a professor of labor studies, urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies and the most recent past director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, working with colleagues to build labor studies and enhance research and engagement through the newly named James Lawson Worker Justice Center.
Saba Waheed
UCLA LABOR CENTER DIRECTOR
Saba Waheed is the director of the UCLA Labor Center. Prior to this role, she spent 11 years as the center’s research director. With nearly 20 years of experience developing community-led research projects for labor advocacy organizations, Waheed’s work is grounded in the “research justice” framework, which she codeveloped to address structural inequities in research.
In her time at the UCLA Labor Center, Waheed built the research infrastructure for, and led, more than 40 studies in partnership with low-wage workers. Among these was the first-ever study of domestic work employers, a multi-year study of workers and learners, and the first national study on nail salon workers and owners. She has also conducted research related to gig workers, young workers, Black workers, LGBTQ+ grocery workers, retail workers, fast food workers and restaurant workers. For six years, Waheed led the Labor Summer Research Program, a UCLA Labor Center schools-to-movement fellowship that places students in community organizations, unions and immigrant rights groups to learn research, organizing and campaign skills.
Waheed is deeply committed to community storytelling as a powerful tool for narrative change. In addition to her research work, Waheed is an award-winning radio producer and writer. She co-produces the podcast Re:Work, a storytelling show about workers, and she co-wrote and co-produced the animated film, “I am a #YoungWorker.” Her short stories are regularly featured in literary magazines, anthologies, and live readings.
Previously, Waheed was a part of the shared leadership team and the research director of DataCenter, and a researcher at the Urban Justice Center.
Waheed received an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University and a BA in English and Religious Studies from UC Berkeley.
Lorena Gonzalez
PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA LABOR FEDERATION, AFL-CIO
A graduate of Stanford University, Lorena served as the Political Director and eventual Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council.
In 2013, Lorena was elected to the California State Assembly, promising to fight for California’s working and middle classes. In 2019, Lorena passed Assembly Bill 5, the strongest law in the country protecting workers against misclassification and wage theft. In 2021, Lorena passed legislation to ensure employers in California can be criminally prosecuted and sent to prison for engaging in intentional wage theft, and she authored the nation’s first law establishing worker protections against Amazon’s dangerous warehouse production quotas.
Lorena was the first Latina to serve as Chairwoman of a legislative Appropriations Committee and was the longest serving Chair in history. She also served as Chairwoman of the California Latino Legislative Caucus from 2019 to 2020.
Lorena now serves as the first woman and first person of color to serve as Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Senator María Elena Durazo
CALIFORNIA SENATE DISTRICT 26
A farm worker who stood with Cesar Chavez. A student activist. A sweat shop organizer and union reformer. A national immigration leader. A Democratic National Committeewoman. LA County’s Labor Federation President. A State Senator.
Arrested over 20 times for leading non-violent Civil Rights and Worker Rights protests.
“Non-violence is the only way to move us forward.” A next generation grandmother with courage, vision, and wisdom.
“We do the most good for the most people when we empower them to earn what they need for their families.”
Maria Elena won the right for women to earn fair wages in the garment industry, a path to organize for farm workers, and the legal right to stand up for your co-workers when they are abused and afraid.
Her work in the State Senate now guarantees access to health care, stronger privacy rights, reproductive freedom and marriage equality.
Yvonne Wheeler
PRESIDENT, LA COUNTY FEDERATION OF LABOR, AFL-CIO
A committed labor, civil rights, and community activist, Yvonne Wheeler has spent her life championing the rights of working people. Currently, she serves as the President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the second largest Central Labor Council in the country, and is the Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party’s Labor Caucus. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for her activism.
In 1996, she became President of the Los Angeles Chapter and 1st Vice President of the California State A. Philip Randolph Institute, an AFL-CIO-sponsored group, bridging the gap between the African American community and the labor movement through civil rights campaigns, voter registration, and job training. In 1999, she became the first African American elected as president of the Communications Workers of America Local 9586.
In 2002, she was recruited by the AFL-CIO as a national field representative. Wheeler was co-chair of the Los Angeles Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2003. Prior to joining AFSCME International, Wheeler was the AFL-CIO Senior Field Representative covering all Southern California. She served as the Area Field Services Director for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
She is a proud mother of two, daughter L'Toya, and son Daryl, and even prouder grandmother of two, Kamryn and Kaleb Tate.
Assemblymember Liz Ortega
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 20
Assemblymember Liz Ortega proudly represents District 20, one of the most ethnically diverse districts in the state. It includes Hayward, San Leandro, most of Union City, portions of Dublin and Pleasanton, and several unincorporated communities. She has spent more than twenty years in the labor movement fighting for workers rights. She made history as the first Latina to be elected as Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, which she ran for five years. In 2022, she was elected to the California State Assembly, where she continues to fight for working families by championing more education about unions for our youth, access to high quality healthcare, workplace safety, and good union jobs. In 2023, she was appointed chair of the Assembly Labor and Employment committee. Since that time, she has been leading the charge in Sacramento on issues like wage theft and safety enforcement and how AI will affect our workforce. In 2023, Asm. Ortega authored AB 800, a first-in-thenation bill to require public high schools hold a Workplace Readiness Week to teach high school students about their rights as workers and how to organize a union.
Jeffry Umaña Muñoz
CO-CHAIR, UNDOCUMENTED STUDENT-LED NETWORK (USN)
Jeffry Umaña Muñoz is an immigrant rights activist and a recent graduate from UCLA, obtaining degrees in both Chicana/o and Central American Studies and Labor Studies.
Jeffry serves as a co-chair for the Undocumented Student-Led Network (USN), a statewide network of immigrant youth leaders working towards creating a just, equitable, and prosperous future for immigrant communities. Since 2022, Jeffry has been a key leading organizer for the groundbreaking Opportunity For All Campaign in California, mobilizing thousands of undocumented students and allies in pursuit of justice for undocumented communities. A first-year Masters of Arts in Latin American Studies student at CSU Los Angeles, Jeffry’s scholarship focuses on Central American and undocumented youth experiences, art, and activism.
Kenneth-Alan M. Callahan
Kenneth-Alan M. Callahan began his journey as a student leader in community college during the COVID-19 pandemic. What started as a passion for making a difference in the educational experiences of other students, led Kenneth to serving as an advocate in many roles, from racial equity to student trusteeship and more.
Before he is a leader, he is a student, and before that, a man, a son, a brother and a friend. This understanding has driven his passion for advocacy within higher education working class families.
Emely Rauda
COMMUNITY EDUCATION SPECIALIST
Emely Rauda is a Community Education Specialist at the UCLA Labor Center. Her journey at the Labor Center began as an undergraduate student at UCLA in the Labor & Workplace minor, then throughout her graduate studies, for 3 years facilitated student learning as the Teaching Assistant for various Labor Studies courses including ‘Nonviolence & Social Movements’ with Kent Wong and Rev. James Lawson Jr. In her role leading the Lawson/Huerta Nonviolence Education Project, Emely is passionate about spreading the forthcoming nonviolence curriculum across the state. The programs’ overall goal is to connect with educators to provide curriculum that empowers students, and by embracing nonviolence, gain the knowledge and skills to become active agents of social change. Emely graduated from UCLA with a BA in Chicana/o Studies and double minors in Global Health and Labor & Workplace Studies and a Master’s from the Fielding School of Public Health in Community Health Sciences. During her free time, she enjoys multiple forms of art expression such as watercolor sketching, zine making, scrapbooking, and nail art.
Lesa Terry
MUSICIAN
As a violinist, composer, artistic director, educator, and scholar, Lesa Terry is an artist whose creative genius consistently brings distinctive innovation to musical performance. Her talents are apparent upon a cursory review of her background including a master’s degree in Afro-Latin music, and fulfilling her lifelong dream, a doctorate degree, from the University of Rhode Island. Lesa’s accomplishments also include membership with the Atlanta and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, as well as performances, lectures, clinics and master classes with the Uptown String Quartet and the Max Roach Double Quartet.
Within the field of music education, Dr. Terry continues as a major contributor to innovative string pedagogy, presenting lectures, clinics, workshops, and demonstrations for the United Nations, Pan African Conference for Cultural Development in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa, North Atlantic Fiddle Conference in St. John, Newfoundland, Alasdair Fraser’s Scottish Fiddle Camps in Nevada City, CA and San Sebastian, Spain, Asia Pacific Performance Exchange Fellowship Residency Program in Bali, Indonesia, Summer Studio Music Camp in Salzburg, Austria, American String Teachers Association, Santa Monica College, Duke Ellington Conference in Chicago Il, UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology, Henry Mancini Institute, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Cal Arts Summer Music Intensive Program for High School Students, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, New York University, The Manhattan School of Music, Julliard School of Music, and the University of Massachusetts.
Currently, Lesa finds great enjoyment with her appointment as artistic director for the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival and the Gospel Voices of Orange County Juneteenth Celebrations.
Tribute to Rev. James Lawson Jr.
“If we can tap the great forces of life itself and use those powers in the solving of the issues we face,” he said, “we will discover the power of life itself in the power of the universe.”
— REV. JAMES LAWSON
As we honor the achievements of the UCLA Labor Center, we’d like to express our deepest gratitude to the late Rev. James Lawson Jr., a lifelong proponent and teacher of nonviolent activism, and a dear friend of the Labor Center.
Referred to by his close friend the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “the mind of the movement” for civil rights and “the leading strategist of nonviolence in the world,” Lawson was known internationally for teaching nonviolent resistance tactics to thousands of young activists. During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Lawson and his colleagues and students led crucial desegregation efforts, including lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides, and worker justice struggles like the historic 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. In later years, Lawson’s guidance was pivotal in helping Los Angeles’ hotel workers’ union achieve higher wages and improved working conditions by orchestrating
nonviolent sit-ins, hunger strikes and civil disobedience protests. Soon after, Los Angeles labor organizers embraced similar tactics, which inspired a national movement for immigrant worker justice.
In the 1990s, Kent Wong joined the UCLA Labor Center as its director and invited Lawson to join the center’s mission to advance worker justice. For more than 20 years, Lawson and Wong co-taught a nonviolence and social movements class with Wong titled “Nonviolence and Social Movements” as part of UCLA’s labor studies program. In 2018, Lawson was awarded the UCLA Medal, the campus’s highest honor. In 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center in recognition of Lawson’s decades-long commitment to the labor movement in Los Angeles.
Looking towards the future, the Labor Center will continue in its mission to advance social and economic justice while grounding itself in the nonviolent teachings of Rev. Lawson. In the words of Labor Center director Saba Waheed, “Rev. Lawson will always be in the narrative of the Labor Center, and we will keep moving forward with the values and vision that he has rooted in us, our building, and our work in research justice and building the next generation of leaders. He will be missed — while his work, teaching and soul force — will continue.”
Lawson himself continuously expressed his belief that humanity has the capacity to overcome its ever-present challenges.
“If we can tap the great forces of life itself and use those powers in the solving of the issues we face,” he said, “we will discover the power of life itself in the power of the universe.”
About the UCLA Labor Center
Established in 1964, the UCLA Labor Center, a unit of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), housed at the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, believes that a public university belongs to the people. The 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. Through our signature approaches and methodology that employ research justice, schools-to-movement pathways, and field building, we partner with workers, unions, worker centers, students, and impacted communities to advance economic justice across California, the nation and globally. Our research, education, and policy work lifts industry standards, creates jobs that are good for communities, and strengthens immigrant rights, especially for students and youth.
Learn more about and support the UCLA Labor Center.
Labor Center Projects
CARE at Work
Through a schools-to-movement pathway of service, teaching, capacity building and research, the purpose of the Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity (CARE) at Work is to reveal conditions of Black work in Southern California under global racial capitalism and model approaches for change. CARE at Work focuses on Black equity, working with more than 32 unions and community organizations across Southern California to build strong Black worker centers to engage local workers; shape regional coordination, resource-sharing, and capacity building toward field development and co-produce relevant actionable research and policy learning to fuel change.
DRC
The UCLA Dream Resource Center (DRC), a program team of the UCLA Labor Center, trains the next generation of diverse leaders—immigrant youth and allies with lived experiences—to be at the forefront of social justice movements and achieve equity and justice for workers, families, and communities. Founded to support undocumented immigrant youth after the U.S. Senate failed to pass the federal DREAM Act in 2010, the DRC provides emerging leaders a safe and empowering space to create impactful social, policy, and narrative change via research, leadership development, and placements within the immigrant rights, social justice, and labor movements.
Global Solidarity
The Global Solidarity Project believes that in a global economy, unions and workers must come together across borders. Everyday, the team builds international partnerships among labor leaders and scholars and conducts key research to improve labor standards and working conditions throughout the world. Multinational corporations know no boundaries and can dodge labor and environmental regulations. Factory workers, garment workers, farm workers, migrant workers, and miners pay the price. Only through joining together around our common interests can we challenge corporate domination.
POWER
The Prosperity, Opportunity, and Worker Equity Reimagined (POWER) in Workforce Development team focuses on institutionalizing solutions that align with the high road training partnership (HRTP) framework to address systemic issues that limit economic outcomes for the most marginalized communities in California. It centers worker power, equity and job quality in workforce development approaches to significantly improve work and wealth building opportunities, especially for communities of color.
ReWork Research
The ReWork research team employs the principles of research justice to examine conditions in low-wage industries and advocate for safe and dignified jobs. By recognizing students, workers, and community members as experts, ReWork approaches research as a tool for action, and promotes equal access to information. The team collaborates with workers and community partners to document key trends in low-wage industries and keep employers accountable to labor laws. Our research supports policies and enforcement measures that create an economy that works for everyone.
ReWork: Podcast
For more than a decade, Re:Work, the UCLA Labor Center podcast, has elevated stories of work to humanize and break down economic and racial justice issues. Hosted by Labor Center Director Saba Waheed and New Media Narrative Strategist Veena Hampapur, the podcast explores storytelling as a tool for social change. Each episode centers the life story of a worker or activist — with a focus on people of the global majority — through curated interviews punctuated with host reflections, music, and archival tape that draw listeners to a particular time, place, and feeling. Re:Work also trains community producers and students in multimedia story production and includes curriculum and educational tools.
Strategic Partnerships
The UCLA Labor Center has a deep history of labor and community partnership. Research and education at the Labor Center advance workers’ rights by bringing together faculty and students with labor and community partners. Our work to advance the rights of workers, communities of color, and immigrants is grounded in cutting-edge research, leadership development, education, and policy change. cultivating strategic partnerships.
James Lawson Jr./Dolores Huerta Nonviolence Education Project
The James Lawson Jr./Dolores Huerta Nonviolence Education Project is an initiative that provides a nonviolence curriculum to educators across California. The education initiative is a result of California State Senate Resolution 38, authored by Senator María Elena Durazo, which passed unanimously to expand nonviolence education in public schools of California. Transforming the resolution’s call from idea to reality, the project will introduce the history and principles of nonviolence to 11th- and 12thgrade high school students across the state. It adapts lessons from influential leaders and events that shaped the 20th-century civil rights and farmworkers movements, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Delano Grape Boycott and Strike.
Asian American Racial Justice Project
Under the leadership of Director Kent Wong and with generous funding from the Kellogg Foundation, the Cathay Bank Foundation, and the California Department of Social Services, the UCLA Labor Center is spearheading a Racial Justice Campaign focused on the interconnected issues of racial justice, immigrant rights, and worker rights. The project aims to empower the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community by engaging a broad range of union leaders, activists, and community members to develop a multi-racial analysis and response to the rise of anti-Asian hate, contextualizing this issue within the broader framework of worker and immigrant justice. The initiative focuses on community empowerment, capacity building, and cross-racial movement building.
About Labor Studies
UCLA Labor Studies Undergraduate Program
The UCLA Labor Studies program, the first major of its kind at the University of California, offers undergraduates a unique opportunity to learn about the workplace and the social, political, and economic forces shaping it. Established as a minor in 2014 and becoming a major in 2019, the program emphasizes a range of topics, including the labor market, public policy, employment relations, unions, and working-class movements. It also focuses on issues of race, class, and gender in the workplace. Renowned for its commitment to engaged student learning in community worker settings, the program combines rigorous hands-on research with courses that address some of the most pressing labor and social justice issues today.
By critically analyzing the theory and practice of current workplace issues, students develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between their education and society at large and how they, as college graduates, can transform the nature of work. The program offers:
Labor Studies Courses provide students with high quality academic coursework and applied research skills around the current and future state of work in the US and abroad.
The Labor Summer Research Program is a research seminar with fieldwork; a way to augment traditional classroom-based learning with experiential learning in a community setting with direct engagement in labor and workplace issues. This summer program offers students a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in an applied research experience focused on the Los Angeles labor movement that is leading national efforts to promote social justice for working people.
Community Internships in Labor-related organizations are offered through the Labor Studies program to engage students with professionals, community activists, and the public to gain critical perspectives on the program’s core subjects.
2024 Labor Studies Graduates
Elizabeth Marie Aguirre
Micaela Aragon
Tamara Elaine Avila
Anthony Ayala
Kimberly Barrueta
Ambar Bolan Hernandez
Ella Rose Borsodi
Ava Gibson Calbreath
Kenneth-Alan Michael Callahan
Kimberly Candia
Cheyenne Xochitl Chalk
Zahra Chavoshi
Benjamin Daniel Collier
Corinne Taylor Conant
Victor Isai Covarrubias Rodriguez
Jasmine Ariana Faiez
Elizabeth Jasmmine Garcia
Jamie Ayleen Garcia
Lilianna Victoria Garcia
Katelynn Joy Garmendia
Samantha Gazda
Andy Efrain Guox
Ronald Adelmo Herrera
John Paul Jacho
Montserrat Juarez
Maisha Kalam
Simran Kher
Jun Li
Rosal Lorico
Breanna Ivette Maldonado
Katherine Mcnamara
Monica Medel Cabrera
Michelle Miranda Andrei Raphael Lopez Mojica
Oscar Gustavo Moreno
Ingrid B Munoz
Willa Andrews Needham
Andrea Nunez Guido
David Adam Ramirez
Nasmy Yamiller Rodriguez
Meliya Tesfom Russom
Claire Bella Saguy
Keyshawn Jordan Sealie
Sherrod A Session
Niki Sharvini
Yasmeen Maria Soriano Ledezma
Brandon Soung
Isabella Epifania Sousa Terraciano
Keith Ryan Stahl
Bobbie Sturge
Claudia Sung
Lauren Dawn Toledo
Sheila Vafa
Daniela Valadez
Isabelle Catherine Winger
Aryana Affat Zakeri
Kyra Zhang
Guanhua Zhou
IBEW Local 11
SEIU 2015
UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and UCLA Labor Studies
UCLA Social Sciences
Skills Partnership California Federation of Teachers (CFT) California Teachers Association (CTA) The California Wellness Foundation CHIRLA
IATSE B-192
Contreras Foundation UDW/AFSCME Local 3930 UFCW Local 324 UFCW Local 770 UNITE HERE Local 11 Writers Guild of America West (WGAW)
Solidarity Spark
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Southern California
California Association of Professional Employees (CAPE)
California Nurses Association (CNA)
Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP
KIWA LAANE
Latino & Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley
LCLAA Los Angeles
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis
Los Angeles/Orange County
Organizing Committee
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA)
Rothner, Segall & Greenstone
Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP
SEIU-USWW
Teamsters Local 396
Teamsters Local 911
UFCW Western States Council
USC Equity Research Institute
USW Local 675
Ad Sponsor
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
Bush Gottlieb A Law Corporation
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
IBEW Local 302
Labor 411
LA Race Praxis Network/GoCompassion
Los Angeles Black Worker Center
NAKASEC
SEIU Local 721
UTLA
The Workers Lab
Friends of the Labor Center
California Healthy Nail
Salon Collaborative
CFA Long Beach
Chris Erickson
Tobias Higbie and UCLA IRLE
Jobs for the Future (JFF)
The LIFT Fund
LiUNA Local 300
Neighborhood Funders Group
Tom Rankin
Annie L. Ross
UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry
UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science
UCLA Center on Race & Digital Justice
USW Local 7600
Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld
Chris Zepeda-Millan and UCLA Labor Studies Undergraduate Program
Jon Zerolnick
Celebrating 60 Years of the UCLA Labor Center: Proud Support from IBEW
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is honored to support the UCLA Labor Center as it celebrates 60 years of advancing workers’ rights and social justice. With a deep commitment to empowering workers and strengthening communities, IBEW proudly sponsors this milestone.
Together, we stand united in the fight for fair labor practices, equity, and dignity for all workers. Congratulations to the UCLA Labor Center on six decades of impactful work—we look forward to many more years of partnership and progress.
From Your Friends and Fans at IBEW 11
Robert Corona Business Manager/ Financial Secretary
Alton Wilkerson President
CONGRATULATIONS ON 60 YEARS OF BUILDING WORKER JUSTICE
Congratulations to for reaching 60 years!
Thank you for being a leader in supporting undocumented students through the Dream Resource Center.
SUPPORT INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTEES WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP
Judy Van Arsdale and Emily Warnecke were both adopted and brought to the United States by U.S. citizen parents as children. Despite being adopted and becoming integral members of American families, their citizenship was never secured.
Scan the QR code to learn more about their stories and how you can help them attain their citizenship.
Sign the petition today and follow Adoptees for Justice for updates!
irle.ucla.edu
, the UCLA Labor Center has CLA’s public mission with transformatio rams. We loo nued grow
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S O N
6 0 Y E A R S
U C L A L A B O R C E N T E R !
Proudly Celebrates UCLA Labor Cent er’s
60th Anniversary
And its 60 years of strong leadership in the fight for worker justice and immigrant rights
David E. Ahdoot
Robert A. Bush
Adrian R. Butler
Hector De Haro
Lisa C. Demidovich
Erica Deutsch
Peter S. Dickinson
Letizia M. Dorigo
Julie Gutman Dickinson
Ira L. Gottlieb
Samantha M. Keng
Joseph A. Kohanski
Adam Kornetsky
Dana S. Martinez
J. Paul Moorhead
Sophie E. H. Newman
Michael Plank
Kirk M. Prestegard
Luke Taylor
Estephanie Villalpando
Jason Wojciechowski
Vanessa C. Wright
Sara Yufa
Labor 411 is proud to support the UCLA Labor Center on 60 Years of fighting the good fight for social justice and change.
We salute you for training the next generation of activists.
From your ‘Buy Union, Buy American’ friends and fans at Labor 411!
www.Labor411.org
SEIU Local 721 is a proud supporter of The UCLA Labor Center.
SEIU 721 congratulates The Labor Center on its 60th Anniversary celebration
ww w.seiu721.org facebook.com/seiu721 twitter.com/seiu721 D EDI CATED TO RE
Congratulations!
UFCW Local 324 is proud to celebrate UCLA Labor Center’s 60th anniversary. Your hard work and leadership are an inspiration to us all!
President - Andrea Zinder Sec.-Treas. - Matt Bell
UNITE HERE LOCAL 11
CONGRATULATES THE UCLA LABOR CENTER
Writers Guild of America West congratulates UCLA Labor Center on its 60th anniversary
We salute the Center for 60 years of advancing research, education, and policy work to raise industry standards, create good jobs for communities, and strengthen immigrant rights.
The Center’s ongoing commitment has helped workers, students, and labor leaders achieve victories for working people and foster dynamic partnerships between unions and worker centers.
Solidarity Shines on 60 Years of Building Worker Justice
CONGRATULATIONS
UCLA Labor Center for 60 years of commitment and service to our community
WE ARE THE NATION’S LARGEST CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATI ON DEDICATED TO SERVING ASIAN AMERICAN, NATIVE HAWAIIAN, PACIFIC IS LANDER COMMUNITIES.
Here’s to six decades of fighting for workers’ rights and championing our shared values. Your leadership has paved the way for a brighter future for
Congratulations UCLA Labor Center on 60 years of building worker justice!
Your partners in sacred solidarity since 1996
Congratulations UCLA Labor Center for 60 years of impactful work! We look forward to upholding the late Reverend Lawson’s legacy with you.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles is proud to stand in solidarity with the UCLA Labor Center to advance equal justice for workers and communities. Congratulations on 60 years building worker justice!
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, First District, proudly supports UCLA Labor Center’s 60th Anniversary Celebration, “Solidarity Shines: 60 Years of Building Worker Justice!”
@ h i l d a s o l i s
Rothner, Segall & Greenstone congratulates the UCLA Labor Center on 60 years of solidarity with workers, students, and labor leaders in advancing worker justice and immigrants’ rights.
www.rsglabor.com
Glenn Rothner
Eli Naduris-Weissman
Daniel B. Rojas
Hannah S. Weinstein
Teamsters Local 911
UCLA Labor Center on its 60th Anniversary
Together in the fight for worker justice!
Raymond Whitmer Secretary-Treasurer
USW LOCAL 675 APPLAUDS OUR FRIENDS AT THE UCLA LABOR CENTER FOR 60 AMAZING YEARS!
WE ARE EXCITED TO SEE THE CONTINUED INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND WORK HELPING THE LABOR MOVEMENT AND COMMUNITY.
Foundation Supporters
AAPI Equity Alliance
American Center for International Labor Solidarity
California Bureau of Cannabis Control
California Community Foundation
California Department of Industrial Relations
California Labor Federation
California Workforce Development Board
Cathay Bank Foundation
Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement
Dubchansky Family Foundation
ECMC Foundation
Ford Family Foundation
James Irvine Foundation
Kellogg Foundation
New America Foundation
New World Foundation
Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation
Rosenberg Foundation
The California Endowment
The California Wellness Foundation
Weingart Foundation
Advisory Committee
DAVID CAMPBELL
United Steelworkers Local 675
MINDY CHEN
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
TERESA CONROW
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
MIKE MILLER
United Auto Workers Region 6
SUSAN MINATO
UNITE HERE Local 11
HUGO ROMERO
Service Employees International Union 2015
NANCY ROMERO
International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 18
DOUG MOORE
UDW Homecare Providers Union/ AFSCME Local 3930
THOM DAVIS
International Association of Theater and Stage Employees Local 80
ILSE ESCOBAR
United Teachers Los Angeles
DAVID HUERTA
Service Employees International Union-
United Service Workers West
STEPHEN MCFARLAND
Cal State University, Dominguez Hills Labor Studies
ROBERT SMITH
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36
CRISTINA VAZQUEZ
Service Employees International Union Workers United
ANTONIO SANCHEZ
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11
ROB NOTHOFF
Los Angeles County Federation Of Labor, AFL-CIO
MATT O’MALLEY
United Food and Commercial Workers 770
TERESA SANCHEZ
Service Employees International Union Local 721
KATHLEEN YASUDA
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
DAVID YOUNG Writers Guild of America West
JUDITH SERLIN
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 911
CHLOE OSMER
California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
VIVIAN PRICE
Cal State University Dominguez Hills Labor Studies Program
DAVID SICKLER
Los Angeles Orange County Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO
Labor Center Staff
Saba Waheed, Director
ADMINISTRATION
Kimberly Diamse, Fund Manager
Evelyn Godinez, Operations Manager
Luz Hernandez, Fund Manager
Chris Jang, IT Coordinator
COMMUNICATIONS
Emily Jo Wharry, Communications Director
Simone Frank, Communications Specialist
Veena Hampapur, New Media
Narrative Strategist
Maisha Kalam, Communications Specialist
Silvia Vazquez, Communications Specialist
COMMUNITY & LABOR PARTNERSHIPS
Kent Wong, Director, Labor and Community Partnerships
Larry Frank, Capital Campaign Director
Lisa Lei, Asian American Racial Justice Coordinator
Emely Rauda, Community Education Specialist
DEVELOPMENT
Melissa Mooney, Development Director
Vivian Nguyen, Associate Director of Development
Veronica Wilson, Program Specialist
CARE AT WORK
Andrea Slater, Director, CARE at Work
Dwayne Jackson, Program Manager, CARE at Work
Karrasia Myles, Program Coordinator, CARE at Work
Déjà Thomas, Program Manager, CARE at Work
DRC
Ju Hong, Director, DRC
George Chacon, Deputy Director, DRC
Gaby Gil, Project Coordinator, DRC
Jenny Kim, Volunteer, DRC
Cuauhtemoc Salinas Martell, Alumni Coordinator, DRC
Jessica Olivares, Project Coordinator, DRC
Marisabel Perez, Labor Summer Coordinator, DRC
Jasmine Garcia Rodriguez, Events and Operations Specialist, DRC
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
Gaspar Rivera Salgado, Director, Global Solidarity
Sara Roschdi, Program Manager, Global Solidarity
POWER IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Ana Luz Gonzalez-Vasquez, Director, POWER
Nestor Ramirez, Senior Research Analyst, POWER
Mayra A. Varillas Cilia, Research Analyst, POWER
REWORK RESEARCHERS
Victor Narro, Director, ReWork
Janna Shadduck Hernandez, Director, ReWork
Lucero Herrera, Senior Research Analyst, ReWork
Brian Justie, Senior Research Analyst, ReWork
Tia Koonse, Legal and Policy Research Manager, ReWork
Monica Macias, Research Analyst, ReWork
Jazmin Rivera, Community Education Specialist, ReWork
Elda Soloman, Senior Research Analyst, ReWork
GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHERS
Devon Baker
Leo Jacob Blain
Ahyeon Cho
Abbie Cohen
Chloe Curry
Kayla Degala-Paraiso
Kerr Gebreselassie
Jazz Henry
Norma Hernandez
Amil Hogan
Emmelle Joan Israel
Leah Claire Jacobson
Aya Konishi
Madalyn Le
Alicia Inés López
Dulce Maria Lopez Gonzalez
Carolyn Park
Free Pierre
Juan Manuel Solis
John Schmidt
Jessika Viveros
STUDENT WORK-STUDIES
Yailene Delgado
Prabhleen Kaur
Hina Malik
Madison Pedurand
VISITING SCHOLARS
Robert Chlala
Brady Collins
Dario Valles
Poster Artist
Brenda Chi
Brenda Chi (she/her) is a Queer Asian American artist from the San Gabriel Valley, with a 10-year career in TV, film, comics, apparel and editorial. She is currently the Comms Designer at 18MR, an Asian American non-profit. As a daughter of ChineseVietnamese immigrants, Brenda’s personal work is rooted in her upbringing as an American-Born-Chinese (ABC), empowering the Asian American experience. You may have seen her “MSG Girl” and “Yeet Hay All Day” shirts in real life. Brenda had a solo show in LA Chinatown, called “Missing You In Chinatown”, a preservation and celebration of Chinatown and its immigrant small businesses and a commentary on the gentrification in this working class ethnic enclave. Her work of Chinatown is also featured in Los Angeles’ Public Library’s Summer Reading Program (2023), where her “My L.A.” art, featuring the diverse neighborhoods of LA, became viral when it became a LAPL tote bag. In her spare time, she runs a drawing workshop called “The Drawing Club” at Gallery Nucleus and watches bad reality TV with her two one-eyed cats.
In 2021, UCLA dedicated our MacArthur Park building to Rev. James Lawson Jr., champion of civil and worker rights. The UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center is currently undergoing renovations, but by 2025, will reopen as a key hub for worker rights and social justice advocacy in Los Angeles.
POSTER BY BRENDA CHI