When about 200 students began shouting “Si, se puede! Si,
se puede!” in unison Tuesday afternoon, one could have
mistaken Ackerman Grand Ballroom for a union hall. But the students
from UCLA, local community colleges and high schools weren’t
about to go on strike, and were instead part of the first
Student/Labor Action Teach-In organized by the UCLA Labor Center
and the undergraduate student government’s general
representatives.
The event focused on education and coalition building among
students, workers and unions, and community organizers charged
students with the responsibility to become activists.
“This teach-in is building on the historic role students
have played in the civil rights movement, the United Farm Workers
movement” and other labor movements, said Kent Wong, director
of the Labor Center. Local labor leaders opened the conference by
telling stories of how students played integral roles in many of
their campaigns.
Lakesha Harrison, president of the American Federation of State,
County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299, said students greatly
helped organize workers and other students in the fight for better
wages for many service employees at UCLA. Harrison said when she
first joined AFSCME she was skeptical of how much of an effect
students could have on local labor issues, but that “now we
don’t run a campaign without consulting them,” she
said.
Students have historically been at the center of struggles for
human rights, something the Rev. James Lawson, who usually teaches
a course on nonviolence during the spring, didn’t want
attendees to forget. “Every movement in the last 4000 years
has had at its center the young.” After hearing from other
labor leaders including President Maria Elena Durazo of the local
chapter of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Jose
LaLuz, a former organizer in Puerto Rico, students learned
organizing tactics and were informed of labor struggles within the
UC in different workshops.
In one workshop, Lakesha Harrison and the Rev. Lois Chase of
Hamilton United Methodist Church told students the do’s and
don’ts of civil disobedience. AFSCME organizer Brian Rudiger
led students and organizers on a small tour of UCLA, stopping to
discuss labor violations in different departments and buildings on
campus.
Undergraduate Students Association Council’s general
representative, Tommy Tseng, said he hoped the conference would
inform students about labor issues on campus, empower them with
skills to aid labor struggles, and build a relationship between
students and labor organizations.
Nai Saephanh, a coordinator with the Student Worker Front, said
the conference is important because many students are unaware of
workers’ labor struggles even though they see them almost
every day. “A lot of students don’t realize
what’s going on. They’re in a bubble,” Saephanh
said.
Planning for the conference began over four months ago after the
Student Labor Action Project, a new and still unofficial group, was
able to shift focus from helping save the Labor Center from
proposed budget cuts to other campus issues and initiatives.
Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers union,
was the dinner speaker and ended the day by challenging students to
recognize their own power in working for change.
Rodriguez said some students may feel bogged down by academic
obligations, but that those are often just excuses. “If we
really believe it in our hearts, we’ll figure out a way to do
it,” he said.