HOME PRESS ROOM UPDATE ON THE ILE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 2004

WE FEEL THE PAIN of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature as they try to close a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, but Schwarzenegger should not be wielding the budget as a crude tool to go after people or institutions he may differ with politically or philosophically, especially those operating within the University of California.

That certainly is what he seems to be doing with his proposal to cut $2 million in state funding for UC's Institute for Labor and Employment at UCLA and UC Berkeley, which will effectively eliminate it.

Schwarzenegger's aides say innocently that targeting the institute is not ideologically motivated, but is just a cost-cutting measure. That explanation rings hollow, however, in light of the fact that the institute is the only one specifically named in his list of midyear cuts totaling $150 million.

The institute unashamedly focuses on issues of concern to workers -- including minimum and "living" wages, health insurance and workers' compensation.

Among its many projects and studies, the institute puts out an annual report titled "The State of California Labor." Other publications include a manual for workers on "Jobs Rights, Protections and Remedies," a report on "Labor Standards and Quality of Care in California's Services for People with Developmental Disabilities" and another, "Paid Family Leave in California: An Analysis of Costs and Benefits."

Activities like these have infuriated pro-business groups and think tanks, which have railed against the UC labor institute and others like it around the nation as nothing more than fronts for labor unions.

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.

Business schools have an equally symbiotic relationship with the corporate sector, do huge amounts of research to help it and specifically train students to drive the engine of capitalism here and abroad.

We think that institutes with both "pro business" and "pro labor" orientations have a place in academia. The state government does need to find budget cuts, but these decisions should be judged by their prudence and efficiency, not by political ideology.