The UCLA Labor and Workplace Studies minor offers UCLA undergraduates an opportunity to learn about the workplace and the social, political, and economic forces that influence it. This interdisciplinary minor focuses on the labor market, public policy, employment relations, and working-class movements. It also explores issues of race, class, and gender in the workplace.
As part of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education plays a unique role as a bridge between the university and the labor community in Southern California.This role has grown in the past few years with the dramatic changes that have overtaken the Southern California economy.
As part of the university, the Labor Center serves as an important source of information about unions and workers to interested scholars and students. Through its extensive connections with unions and workers, the Labor Center also provides labor with important and clearly defined access to UCLA's resources and programs. An advisory committee comprised of about forty Southern California labor and community leaders (representing more than one million members in the public and private sectors) provides advice and support for the center.
The Labor Center also hosts a downtown office just two blocks from the L.A. County Federation of Labor, amid the majority of L.A.’s union halls and worker centers
and in the heart of a diverse immigrant community.
