Events
Center updates
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Making Tech Work for Workers
Making Tech Work for Workers Last Tuesday, several Social Sciences faculty and staff members attended Making Tech Work for Workers: A Statewide Conference on Labor, AI, and Building Power in California in Sacramento. Chris Benner (Institute for Social Transformation faculty director), Steve McKay (Center for Labor and Community faculty director), Zoe Zhao (Center for Labor…
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A Just Transition for Whom?
A Just Transition for Whom? On December 5, 2024, the Center for Labor and Community hosted a conversation with Dr. J. Mijin Cha (author of A Just Transition for All: Workers and Communities for a Carbon-Free Future, MIT Press) and Labor Notes’ Labor-Climate Organizer, Keith Brower-Brown. This event brought together academics, labor organizers, and workers from across the region to think…
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Center Launch Event 2023
On December 7, 2023, the Center for Labor and Community (CLC) held a reception to commemorate the official launch of this exciting new hub for labor-related research and activism at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over sixty participants crowded the third-floor salon of the UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences on a chilly…
Center news
Research uncovers local labor issues that may be driving increased unionization
Surveys show young workers suffer from scheduling instability, and those who are LGBTQ+ are more likely to experience wage theft and workplace injuries. Meanwhile, census data show a harmful pay gap for Latina workers.
Saritaan: Preserving Filipino migration stories across oceans and generations
A new UC Santa Cruz initiative called Saritaan—meaning “to talk story” in Ilokano—is preserving the untold migration stories of Filipino families.
Center for Labor and Community partners with regional union leaders on state-funded push to ensure workplace rights, safety, and benefits
UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Labor and Community will partner with the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO on a state grant to educate workers across the Central Coast in sectors like agriculture, hospitality, construction, manufacturing, and retail.
Young workers in Santa Cruz County may be poised to lead a ‘union boom’
Santa Cruz County has already been gaining national attention for groundbreaking unionization efforts led by young workers, including at local Starbucks and REI locations. Now, new survey data show why that trend is likely to continue.
Center for Labor and Community opens on UC Santa Cruz campus
Scholars studying the economic and social impacts of a variety of labor and employment issues facing workers in Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay Area just announced the opening of a new center on campus that will provide timely and policy-relevant labor research, will educate the next generation of labor and community leaders and will advance labor, community, and occupational health initiatives.
Scholars, students, and community working together for transformation at UCSC’s All-In Conference
More than 400 university scholars, students, community organizers, foundation representatives, artists, and activists came together in late October for a one-of-a-kind event to build collaborative partnerships for community-engaged research and meaningful social change at the UC Santa Cruz conference: All-In: Co-creating Knowledge for Justice.
Student research project looks at affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz
A UC Santa Cruz multi-media research project on the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz is scheduled to be presented to the public 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz.
Student study tells the stories of low-wage workers in Santa Cruz County
A year-long study by UC Santa Cruz students that finds low-wage workers in Santa Cruz County earn about $10 an hour compared with the county median of $17.81 will be released at ‘Working for Dignity,’ a public event 7-9 p.m. Thursday, May 7 at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz.
Restaurant worker advocate visits Santa Cruz for reading, book signing
Saru Jayaraman, author of Behind the Kitchen Door, will speak and sign copies of her book Thursday, March 21, 7-9 p.m. at the Live Oak Grange, 1900 17th Ave., Santa Cruz in an event co-sponsored by the UCSC Center for Labor Studies, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, and Friends of the UCSC Farm and Garden.
In the media
- Steve McKay, a UC Santa Cruz sociology professor who has researched the city’s housing affordability problem, believes Measure C would help address this issue—in […]
- Young local workers once viewed service jobs as temporary steppingstones. Now, more than 80% told UC Santa Cruz researchers that they are open to […]
- Teresa Ghilarducci, a research fellow at the UC Santa Cruz Center for Labor and Community, wrote an opinion article about the need to defend […]
- Sociology Professor Steve McKay, director of the Center for Labor and Community, says union power helps to push back against increasingly precarious conditions in […]
- New evidence suggests younger workers are more attuned to the benefits of unionization. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz did a deep […]
- The Supreme Court's decision to kick a case on pay and benefits for gig workers back to state courts means there’s a continuing lack […]