About Us
The UC San Diego Labor Center strengthens and expands the labor movement through advanced research, education, and strategic partnerships with workers, labor organizations, policymakers, tribal organizations, and the broader San Diego region. We place the wellbeing of workers, their families, and their communities at the forefront of our curricula, community engagement, public programs and publications. We focus attention on the unique socio-economic circumstances of the border region, including large binational and refugee communities and Indigenous nations in the region.
We support labor organizations by developing research that impacts the lives of California workers and strengthens the research capacities of organizations building worker power, broadly construed. Our research offers innovative policy perspectives on work and workers while our worker-centered approach advances the goals of fair working conditions, living wages, and climate, gender, and racial justice.
History
The UC San Diego Labor Center was established in March 2023 during an unprecedented expansion of the University of California's Labor Center network. Following a $13 million ongoing allocation made during California's 2022-2023 legislative session, five new centers were established, UC San Diego's Labor Center among them.
Work That Matters Now
- We need policy relevant research. California workers face environmental and global economic challenges
- Students seek this knowledge. We are seeing a surge of interest in forming unions or asserting worker rights across a range of industries
- UC is the power of public. We have an opportunity to channel, educate, and create empirical research to address public interest
Read more about who we are, find out our plans, and get involved!