Re:Work by the UCLA Labor Center

There’s a tendency to associate fast-food with American nostalgia, which can shield issues in the franchise structure ranging from wage theft to violence and safety concerns. 

Most recently, fast-food workers have been at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in their public facing jobs, in addition to confronting difficult work conditions that became more acute during the pandemic. 

In this episode, Mauricio Juarez shares his journey from working in the silver mines in Taxco, Mexico to working in fast-food in San Diego in his sixties, and becoming a part of the Fight for $15.

To learn more about the fast-food industry, please check out our recent reports:

(2022)"Fast-Food Frontline: COVID-19 and Working Conditions in Los Angeles" - bit.ly/fast-food-frontline 

(2021) "The Fast-Food Industry and COVID-19 in Los Angeles"

These reports were a collaboration between the UCLA Labor Center, UC Berkeley Labor Center, UCLA Labor Occupational Health and Safety Program, and UC Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program.

Learn more about the Fight for $15.

We’ve partnered with Self Evident, and are excited to share an episode from their show! Self Evident is a podcast focused on the full range of Asian American perspectives, which are too often erased from the national discourse.

This episode is a collaboration between Self Evident and AZI Media, and is part of a project called “Advancing Democracy” by the Solutions Journalism Network.

When Augustine Tang’s father passed away, Augustine decided to inherit his taxi medallion – the license that had allowed his father to drive a yellow taxi cab in New York City for decades. But the medallion came with a $530,000 debt trap and years of struggling to escape it.

Augustine’s friend Kenny, a fellow taxi cab driver, committed suicide. So did several other drivers who were crushed under the weight of these impossible debts. In hopes of preventing another death, Tang joined a push by the local taxi drivers’ union, to campaign for debt relief. And eventually, city resistance to worker demands culminated in a 15-day hunger strike to convince City Hall that immigrant taxi drivers deserved a fair deal.

The drivers’ struggles for livable working conditions showed how political power doesn’t just come down to votes. It’s a reminder how strong collective will can be, especially for those often silenced and ignored by our imperfect democracy.

Please take a short survey after listening at tinyurl.com/azitaxi — to help Self Evident fund more stories like this one!

Civil rights icon, Reverend James Lawson Jr., shares his recollections of the 1960s and working closely with Martin Luther King Jr.

Reverend Lawson presents the nonviolent movement in America as the "nuclear engine" of the mid-20th century civil rights movement, and as a strategic series of organizing campaigns for racial and economic justice.

This is the second part of our miniseries on Reverend James Lawson Jr.

Transcript

This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's UCLA Labor Studies course, Nonviolence and Social Movements, which he teaches with UCLA Labor Center Director Kent Wong. To watch the class, visit bit.ly/UCLALawson.

Books by Rev. Lawson:

Related Links:

irle.ucla.edu/labor-studies/comm…-social-movements/

newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-cla…ther-king-legacy

newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/dedicat…ing-james-lawson

newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/james-la…lding-dedication

On Dec. 11, 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, in honor of a civil and worker rights icon who has been teaching at UCLA for the last 2 decades.

In this episode of Re:Work, 93-year-old Rev. Lawson shares stories from his youth, and how he came to discover soul force and the path of nonviolence.

Transcript 

This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's UCLA Labor Studies course, Nonviolence and Social Movements, which he teaches with UCLA Labor Center Director Kent Wong. To watch the class, visit bit.ly/UCLALawson.

Books by Rev. Lawson:

Related Links:

irle.ucla.edu/labor-studies/comm…-social-movements/

newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-cla…ther-king-legacy

newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/dedicat…ing-james-lawson

newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/james-la…lding-dedication

We’ve partnered with Self Evident, and are excited to share an episode from their show! Self Evident is a podcast focused on the full range of Asian American perspectives, which are too often erased from the national discourse. 

In this episode, a daughter of Vietnamese refugees seeks out Southeast Asian Americans with criminal convictions who are at risk for deportation under the Trump administration — and the organizers fighting to keep them in the only home they’ve known.

Learn more about Self Evident at selfevidentshow.com, and subscribe to them wherever you get your podcasts!

In 2020, India suddenly went into a national lockdown without advance planning or adequate government support, which led to a humanitarian crisis in addition to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Millions of jobs disappeared and hunger was a serious issue. Tens of millions of migrant workers struggled to get home — often on foot — and many died attempting the journey. In this episode, we bring you the story of Gulzar, a migrant worker who left his village as a child and traveled across the country, to earn money to support his family.

For more info on the Stranded Workers Action Network, visit strandedworkers.in/

We often refer to birth as miraculous, and it can also seem mysterious. Many times there is a veiling around birth and labor, and the types of work mothers and birthworkers do to bring new life into this world. In this episode, Allegra Hill shares birth stories from her family and how her personal journey led her into the world of birthwork. 

It is part two of our miniseries on Black midwives in Los Angeles devoted to helping women experience empowered births through their birthing center and foundation.

Despite a long tradition of midwifery in the Black community, which predates the founding of the United States, less than 2% of midwives today are Black. In this episode we share the story of Kim Durdin, who found her calling in reclaiming midwifery and birthwork.

It is part one of two episodes where we bring you the stories of Black midwives in Los Angeles devoted to helping women experience empowered births through their foundation and birth center, Kindred Space LA.

When we think about college, there’s a certain whimsical image, a time of self discovery and carefree fun before you step out into the “real” world. But now, with the rising costs of education and living expenses, most students work, and work a lot. 

In this episode of Re:Work, Adolfo González shares his decades long journey to provide for his family while pursuing his education. 

To learn more about “workers and learners” like Adolfo, visit our publications page at labor.ucla.edu. 

And to learn more about farmworkers, check out these reports from the UCLA Labor Center Global Solidarity Team: