Supports & conducts research on employment and labor topics in a variety of academic disciplines.
05/22/2026
📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a digest of labor news to your inbox every Friday.
For federal updates, local news and IRLE expert perspectives, read the newsletter below.
Read the digest at conta.cc/49PVOfZ or click the link in our bio 🔗
Subscribe at bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads
05/21/2026
Organized by the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness in 1977, members gather in defense of welfare rights at the “Hold the Line Caravan.”
View more labor history at memorywork.irle.ucla.edu
05/15/2026
📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a digest of labor news to your inbox every Friday.
For federal updates, local news and IRLE expert perspectives, read the newsletter below.
Read the digest at conta.cc/4dKdBaJ or click the link in our bio 🔗
Subscribe at bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads
1992: AAPI community members march in Washington to protest police acquittal in the Rodney King beating.
Kent Wong, founding president of APALA, delivers a speech to marchers calling for unity and solidarity among racial and labor coalitions.
This footage comes from a documentary on the Asian American and Pacific Islander Labor Alliance (APALA) . Founded in 1992, APALA, AFL-CIO, is the “first and only national organization” of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) workers.
In honor of APPI Heritage Month, learn more about APPI solidarity in the labor movement on the Memory Work website. memorywork.irle.ucla.edu/archives/tag/apala
05/08/2026
📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a digest of labor news to your inbox every Friday.
For federal updates, local news and IRLE expert perspectives, read the newsletter below.
Read the digest at conta.cc/3QSqyGI or click the link in our bio 🔗
Subscribe at bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads
05/07/2026
Labor leaders, community members and workers march in support of hotel workers at the New Otani in 1997.
HERE Local 11 waged a years-long campaign against the hotel and its owners, the Kajima Corporation, after management fired three workers and refused to recognize the union.
Learn more about the New Otani campaign and see more labor history on the Memory Work website.
Photo credit: UCLA Library Special Collections, CLUE Records ()
05/06/2026
Last month, the UCLA Labor Center celebrated reopening its historic building as a nexus of community, organizing and worker education.
Read more about the UCLA Labor Center’s transformative community impact and exciting next era in a new article on the IRLE website. 🌐
Happy May Day!💪
Last year, Victor Narro (), project director at UCLA Labor Center and career organizer, joined Toby Higbie, UCLA IRLE Director and professor of labor and history, for a conversation on the significance of the date in Los Angeles.
Narro and Higbie share their expertise and give advice to organizers today. In this clip, Narro emphasizes the importance of joy in social justice work.
To celebrate May Day this year, watch the full conversation on the UCLA IRLE website through the link in our bio.
Are you marching this year? Share what inspires you about May Day in the comments!
05/01/2026
📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a digest of labor news to your inbox every Friday.
For federal updates, local news and IRLE expert perspectives, read the newsletter below.
Read the digest at conta.cc/42bfcQr or click the link in our bio 🔗
Subscribe at bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads
04/30/2026
With May Day arriving tomorrow, this week’s brings us some inspiring images from previous May Day marches in Los Angeles.
May 1, 2003, depicted on slide 2 & 4, formed a large multiracial coalition. Marchers filled the streets, walking from the Los Angeles Fashion District to the Ronald Reagan State Building. Slide 2 depicts a family carrying various signs stating “No To U.S. War” and “(Stop) Immigrant Bashing.”
