Scholars converse on labor movement
UCLA’s Labor Center supports SAGE’s efforts
By Maria Beerens
UCLA once again became a hotspot of union activity when labor
organizers and scholars gathered at UCLA this weekend to discuss
the current situation of union organization in America.
The 21st Annual Southwest Labor Studies Association Conference,
hosted by the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, allowed
labor experts and leaders from across the nation to present papers
and converse on all aspects of the labor union movement.
The conference’s focus on organizing labor held special
significance for some members of the campus community who have been
pressuring the university to recognize the Student Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE) as a union. Recent disputes have also
occurred between the local Union of Professional and Technical
Employees (UPTE) and the UCLA administration over collective
bargaining power.
"UCLA is not only a learning institution, it is also a bastion
of anti-union activity," said Kent Wong, UCLA labor center
director.
"(Teaching assistants and graduate students are saying) we
really need to get organized, we really need to challenge the way
things are done around here, which really are not accurate and are
not fair," Wong explained.
"So we are going to encourage what SAGE-UAW is doing and we
really want to support their activities," he added.
The conference was sponsored by the Southwest Labor Studies
Association and hosted by the UCLA Labor Center. Students were
invited to a special luncheon which showcased the American
Federation of Labor  Congress of Industrial Organization
(AFL-CIO) Organizing Institute. The institute conducts a training
school which educates people to become union organizers.
Wong explained that the aim (of the institute) is to open up
opportunities for students to get involved in unions.
In order to educate students on labor issues, the UCLA Labor
Center offers undergraduate programs, which provide information on
unions, labor history, law and collective bargaining.
In the next two years, a new masters program in labor studies
will enable students to study labor in the UCLA School of Public
Policy.
But the conference also covered many other aspects of labor.
Professors, historians and union activists all over the country
came to share their research.
Issues such as the U.S.-Mexican labor organization, Native
American women in the 20th century, workplace health and safety and
the Los Angeles Manufacturing Action Project were topics of
discussion.
It was also a real multimedia event with cultural groups
singing, videos and literature on labor issues, officials said.
Janelle Erickson, a UCLA senior history and sociology student,
said she attended because of her interest in labor issues and to
meet experts in this field.
While researching urban poverty as part of a year-long program,
Erickson interned for three months at a community center in South
Central Los Angeles.
Indeed the most important aspect of the conference was to bring
different people together in a non-academic environment, planners
said.
"The people who are here are an interesting combination. They
are not all historians or academics," said Rebecca Mead, a TA in
the history department who has been involved with the association
for seven years.
The conference puts labor activists in a new light, Mead said.
Projects going on in the community were brought together and
compared, she said.
Los Angeles has become a laboratory for experimentation with new
innovations to help labor reorganize itself, said Darryl Holter,
conference coordinator.
The conference had special significance in light of the current
labor disputes between the UCLA administration and campus TAs.
"We at the labor center interface between labor leaders on one
hand and the academic community on the other," Holter said.
"I think that TAs have the right to bargain. There are thousands
of TAs that already have unions," he said. "I think if it’s good
enough for Wisconsin, for Yale, that it will be good enough for
UCLA."