Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy

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Welcome to the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy

The Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy is an interdisciplinary research and education initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara that aims to expand public understanding and discussion of important issues facing working people. In cooperation with the Department of History, the Center administers an undergraduate minor in Labor Studies and a graduate- level Colloquium in Work, Labor and Political Economy. The Center also hosts conferences and workshops that contribute to an understanding, of the issues and ideas, past and present, illuminating the character of American capitalism and the working class that sustains it. The Center is affiliated with the all-UC Miguel Contreras Labor Program.

Upcoming Events

October 8 / 1 PM / HSSB 4041: MATT GARCIA, History and Ethnic Studies, Brown University. “Busy Dying: The United Farm Workers and Caesar Chavez on the Eve of Self-destruction.”  click here to read Matt Garcia's article. Garcia is the author of the prize-winning World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970   (2001) and the forthcoming Geographies of Latinidad: Mapping Latina/o Studies for the Twenty-First Century.

October 15 / 1 PM / HSSB 4041: JOHN BORSOS, Vice President, National Union of Health Care Workers. “Democracy and Insurgency in Health Care Unionism.” Borsos, who holds a Ph.D. in labor history from Indiana University, has been a union activist for nearly two decades. He was director of the Hospital Division of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West and president of the Sacramento Labor Council from 2001 to 2009.

October 29 / 1 PM / HSSB 4041: CASSANDRA ENGEMAN, Sociology, UCSB, “The Dynamics of Social Movement Unionism: Local Union Involvement in Immigrants’ Rights Movements in Los Angeles.” Engeman has long been active in UAW Local 2865, the union for Readers, Tutors, and TAs in the UC system.

November 5 / 1 PM / HSSB 4041: ANDREW ROSS, Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. “Green Jobs/Sustainable Labor in the Age of Climate Justice.” Ross has published 17 books, including No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (1989), Fast Boat to China: Corporate Flight and the Consequences of Free Trade (2006) The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace (2007), and Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times (2009).

December 3 / 1 PM / HSSB 4041: STEPHEN LERNER, Service Employees International Union. “Is Conventional Trade Unionism Obsolete?” Lerner is an architect of the groundbreaking Justice for Janitors campaign. He has been a union strategist for more than three decades and writes frequently for both the mainstream press and scholarly publications. He currently directs the SEIU’s effort to hold banks and other financial institutions accountable for their employment effects on our economy and workplace.