When the Schwarzenegger administration announced its proposal
for mid-year budget cuts, it included what some activists and
politicians consider to be a political move ““ the elimination
of the University of California labor research facility.
The UC Institute for Labor and Employment, a program that
studies problems of labor and employment facing both California and
the nation, is facing cuts of $2 million starting Jan. 1, 2004, and
up to $4 million in cuts for the 2004-2005 year. Such cuts, if
approved by a two-thirds vote in the Legislature, would effectively
wipe out the program.
A program that relies on government funding for its subsistence,
the ILE was cut by $2 million last year.
“Our current budget for this year is $4 million for the
ILE,” said Ruth Milkman, director of the ILE. “The
proposal for the fiscal year beginning in Jan. 1 would eliminate
half of the budget and would eliminate the Institute.”
Republican Party members said elimination is the intended
purpose of the budget cut to the UC labor institutes.
“(The cuts) should be done,” said State Sen. Dick
Ackerman, R-Tustin, who is the vice-chairman of the budget and
fiscal review committee. “It was a Democratic drill a number
of years ago to fund union activity. That is inappropriate, and
they should not be using the university to set up a special program
to benefit unions.”
Ackerman also said if unions desired research programs, they
should provide the funding themselves.
Labor activists, however, have said they will not allow ILE
funding to be cut. Letters are being sent to legislators, UC
President Robert Dynes and UC chancellors to voice concern over the
proposal.
“It’s devastating that they are talking about
cutting all of the funds to the ILE when it is desperately
needed,” said Dolores Huerta, UC Regent and labor activist.
“A very important majority of people in the U.S. are working
people. God willing the proposal won’t go through.”
This proposal is coming at a time when there are extensive
budget cuts being made around California. Within the UC, there are
also $18.4 million in proposed unallocated cuts, and a reduction in
UC K-12 outreach programs by a proposed $12.2 million.
“The state is facing a fiscal crisis,” said Vincent
Sollitto, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger. “If we do nothing,
we will go bankrupt, so we must reduce spending to save our
functions. The core function at the UC is to teach, and we are
doing everything we can to protect that.”
The ILE is not the only institute that would be affected by the
proposed cuts. Within the UC system, the ILE is a part of a network
of other organizations such as the Center for Labor Research and
Education, known as the Labor Center, which provides workers access
to UC research and UC students access to information about labor
and unions.
With cuts to the ILE, groups such as the Labor Center would also
suffer.
“A vast majority of our funding comes from the ILE,”
said Kent Wong, the director at the UCLA Labor Center. “Our
program would be drastically reduced.”
Not only would programs directly affiliated with the ILE be
affected by the budget cuts, but labor unions would lose a resource
for information and education for their union members.
“The ILE is the only program of its kind that specializes
in research of workers in California,” Wong said. “It
is a point of access for workers into the University, and it
conducts public research that would otherwise not occur.”
In view of the $14 billion budget deficit currently facing
California, some believe $4 million would have little impact in
helping to balance the budget.
“It is strictly a political move because it would not be
that costly to keep it going,” said Rita Kern, the UCLA
chapter president of the University Professionals and Technical
Employees union.
Likewise, State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, said the
governor’s administration was pushing its own agenda. Instead
of allocating the budget cuts, she said it should be up to the UC
to decide where cuts are made.
“I don’t think we will totally be able to prevent
cuts at the UC because we are facing such a big budget deficit
right now,” Kuehl said. “If the UC budget is cut
further, it should be left to the university to what gets cut and
not the governor.”