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UPDATE ON THE ILE
AFT ON CAMPUS 2004 LABOR STUDIES ARE UNDER ATTACK AFT On Campus, April 2004 Labor activists in California are fighting to halt what they assert is the politically motivated elimination of the Institute for Labor and Employment (ILE) at the University of California Berkeley and at UCLA. One of the earliest actions Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger took upon being sworn in as governor last November was cutting the institute's budget in half. In December, he proposed zero funding for 2004-05. The ILE has been on right-wing hit lists for a while, says Fred Glass, communications director for the California Federation of Teachers. Last summer, the Pacific Research Institute, which describes itself as a "free market think tank," made a show of targeting the ILE by giving it a "Golden Fleece" award, calling the labor institute's work anti-capitalist. The ILE's roots date to the end of World War II, when the late UC president and labor economist Clark Kerr created a vehicle for the university to help mediate labor-management disputes. In 2000, existing and new labor programs were folded under the umbrella of the ILE, which was set up with a $6 million budget and operates as the only statewide program within the university system to address the labor and employment concerns of California's changing workforce. Reflecting the state's deficit problems, ILE's budget was cut to $4 million for 2003-04, before the new governor cut it to $2 million for the remainder of the academic year and down to nothing for next year. The institute is best known for its highly valued annual report on state labor and employment issues, The State of California Labor, but its research and education program is extensive. It has provided $3 million for 186 research grants to 132 faculty across UC's nine campuses, and another $2 million to fund dissertation-related grants to 136 graduate students in addition to funding hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students in research and summer internships. It provides valuable analysis on topics ranging from prevailing wages to healthcare benefits. Labor librarian Lincoln Cushing, a member of the University Council-AFT, holds one of the positions that could be eliminated. "The good news is that local campuses are picking up the salaries until the end of the school year," he says. The next battle will be getting the Legislature to reinstate the money for next year. Some news stories reporting on the cuts have been quick to point out the retaliatory scent of the governor's action. The ILE was the only program specifically identified in the governor's list of $150 million in program cuts. In a letter to the governor in support of the ILE, AFT president Sandra Feldman asks why labor research would be eliminated while much bigger business and management programs would hardly be touched. The San Francisco Chronicle noted in an editorial that ILE focuses on the concerns of workers, not just unions, which "infuriates" pro-business groups and think tanks. "Yet none of these pro-business groups ever questions the far more substantial state support for UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and 'pro-business' activities at other California campuses," says the editorial. "We're the canary in the coal mine," warns Cushing. "This is the beginning of the attack" on other labor centers. David Bacon, a labor writer based in California, writes in "Class Warfare," a lead story in the Jan. 12 issue of The Nation: "If the opponents of the ILE prevail, activist-oriented programs in Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri and other states will be next on the right-wing hit list." "This is a real attack on university autonomy, whatever you think about labor," says Ruth Milkman, UC ILE director. "With a stroke of the governor's pen, the center should just disappear? If they can do this to us, they can do this to a science program on astronomy or evolution. It opens a real Pandora's box." To help protest the cuts, go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/uclaborctr. |
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