The eight remaining staff members at the UCLA Labor Center will
have fewer resources to work with, due to the large budget cuts
implemented by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The 2005 state budget, passed on July 1, cut funding for the
labor center by $3.8 million ““ two-thirds of the total
operating budget. Although funding for the center was approved by
the state legislature, the governor cut its budget in a line-item
veto.
The labor center serves as a resource for information regarding
workers’ issues, and offers internships with labor unions and
community organizations.
The center also oversees the Labor and Workplace Studies minor,
a program that will not be affected by the lack of center funding,
said Kent Wong, director of the labor center.
The center will do its best to maintain programs, though some
will eventually have to be reduced. Wong is not yet certain which
programs will go.
Tommy Tseng, a fourth-year political science student and former
intern at the center, said he believes it would be a disservice to
students if the center were to be eliminated. Tseng said the center
is a conduit for helping bring students to working communities and
gives them information about working in labor unions in the
future.
To compensate for the lack of funding, the university issued a
one-time grant to the center, though it was only one-third of what
the center requested, said Wong.
Wong and other staff members at the labor center have been
battling the funding issue for the last two years. For the 2004
state budget, the elimination of the center was proposed, but the
governor backed down because labor unions and members of the state
legislature lobbied on behalf of the center.
Because of the previous victory over the proposed cut, Wong said
he was disappointed that the cuts were made final this year.
Though the labor center is determined to continue to operate,
the monetary strains are starting to take their toll. The center
has already reduced its staff by one-third, although Wong
anticipates being able to maintain the current staff through the
end of the school year, thanks to minimal carry-over funding
established through salary savings and fundraising, as well as the
one-time grant from the university.
Though Schwarzenegger maintains the reductions were necessary to
bring expenditures in line with resources, many at the center,
including Wong, believe the budget cut was politically
motivated.
“Labor unions support the labor center to provide
educational resources to workers in the community,” Wong
said. “The governor doesn’t support that.”
In a statement last spring, the spokesman for the Department of
Finance, H.D. Palmer, said the cut reflected no ideological slant
and was simply an effort to resolve the state’s budget
problems.
The labor center operates under the Institute of Industrial
Relations, which sponsors research on labor and employment issues.
The Downtown Labor Center, a recently established branch of the
center, brings students and staff closer to workers in downtown Los
Angeles. Another program that works closely with the center is the
UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, which works to
improve workers’ safety and health conditions.
Because UCLA-LOSH and the labor center collaborate on programs,
including internships and research, UCLA-LOSH could be indirectly
affected by the center’s lack of funding.
UCLA-LOSH program director Linda Delp said the labor center
provides an important framework for students and workers to make a
connection.
“The labor center is a critical link between students and
workers. … Without this link, students may get a skewed
education,” Delp said. She said she believes that, without
the center as a resource, students will not have enough exposure to
the issues of workers.