Labor Research, Worker Power, and Immigrant Justice: An Interview With the UCLA Labor Center Director
Saba Waheed is the director of the UCLA Labor Center. Prior to this role, she spent 11 years as the Labor Center’s research director. With nearly 20 years of experience developing community-led research projects for labor advocacy organizations, Waheed’s work is grounded in the “research justice” framework, which she co-developed to address structural inequities in research.
Labor 411 Editor, Sahid Fawaz, chatted with Saba to learn more about the UCLA Labor Center’s work.
SF: Can you give our readers a little background on the UCLA Labor Center and your role there?
SW: I was the Research Director at the Center for 11 years and last year I became Director of the Center when Kent Wong, who led the organization for 32 years, transitioned to the Director of Strategic Partnership position.
The Center itself is housed within UCLA. Yet, we’re very much focused on supporting labor, immigrant rights, students, and worker centers in Los Angeles and California through research, leadership programs, technical assistance, and policy support.
The Center was founded in 1964, arising out of a demand from the labor movement. The University of California signed a MOU with the California Federation of Labor Unions to create the Center, beginning a long relationship with labor, which includes fellowship and internship programs where we bring people into the labor movement.
We do research that directly impacts workers and do the kind of capacity building and technical assistance support that was at the roots of why we came to be. And we still do that, basically figuring out whatever the most urgent needs are in terms of lifting up conditions for workers, centering their stories, and giving attention to things that are happening on the ground that people aren’t seeing or understanding.
SF: When I think of a university institution, I think about research and academia. But it sounds like the Center is very much involved in the community.
SW: Yes, we see ourselves as a conduit between the university and the many working communities of Los Angeles. So, it’s an opportunity for us to create fellowship programs or work with our Labor Studies Department to support internships and do applied research projects with students but in the service of labor rights, labor policy, and labor organizing work.
SF: Given the number of unions and members in Los Angeles, it seems like a great city for students who are interested in the labor movement.
Definitely. And they’re very active unions too. And we have worker centers, immigrant rights groups, and so on for students to become involved with. There are many opportunities for them right here in our own city.
SF: The big news last week was the ICE raids in LA, which targeted people at their workplaces, including at local garment manufacturers, I believe. Given that these targets are workers, what role, if any, did the Labor Center play in offering support and resources for the workers?
SW: Yes, the raid at the garment factory was the one that involved the arrest of SEIU California President, David Huerta. While ICE was hitting different targets, they were basically going to work sites like car washes and Home Depot.
The Center’s response has been to help people know about their rights and to share resources with them. And because the Center has been around for such a long time, we have relationships going into the coalition spaces where folks are trying to figure out different rapid responses and research and technical support. So, our involvement can be, for example, communication support for a group that needs it after their members are attacked. Or if there’s data needs or policy needs, like policy analysis, we can help with that. There are a lot of different ways that we can help, from information resource sharing to responding to technical assistance that folks might need.
SF: Can you tell us a little bit about the Re:Work podcast?
SW: We’ve been doing the podcast for over 10 years now. It came out of a show called Labor Review run by an old school labor activist named Henry Walton since the 90s. When he handed it over to us, we decided to kind of shift it. So, rather than doing a Q&A style, we wanted to create a storytelling show that centered on workers who basically talked more about themselves and their lives so that we would then learn a little bit about their work and the challenges there. It’s part of our broader vision of humanizing work, lifting up the stories of workers, and discussing workplace challenges. One story might be about a fast-food worker. Another about a cannabis worker. We have a series on garment workers. We want to shine a light on workforces that aren’t in the public perception when people think about work.
SF: How often is the podcast?
SW: I would say we put out four to five episodes a year. We do put a lot of stuff in between. Because it’s a very produced thing, it takes us a couple of months to do it. We include other content in our feed during the time between podcasts to keep our audience informed and engaged.
SF: If someone wants to become involved in or learn more about the Labor Center, what’s the best way for them to do that.
SW: They should just contact our staff at the relevant department. If you are interested in a research project, come talk to one of our researchers. If you’re interested in our fellowship programs, come talk to one of our coordinators.
SF: How does the future look for labor centers in California?
SW: Very bright. Over the last couple of years, we’ve expanded the labor centers to every single UC in California. I feel like that’s exciting, that we are expanding the model of the first two labor centers, which were Berkeley and UCLA, and then Merced started about seven, eight years ago. California is one of the few states that has invested more money into labor centers and labor studies. And because of this state augmentation, we were able to open a labor center at every single UC.
