For all his lip-service about fighting for the people, Gov.
Schwarzenegger apparently doesn’t care much about the plight
of the average California worker. For the second year in a row, he
has directed a targeted budget cut at the University of
California’s two labor centers.
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s new budget proposal specifies that
the UC should expect a $3.8 million cut that would eliminate about
75 percent of the funding for the UC Institute of Labor and
Employment, directly impacting the long-established labor centers
at UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Last year Schwarzenegger tried to cut the program, but failed
after supporters pushed for a last-minute deal between the
governor, legislature and UC. But now, once again, it faces
elimination.
The center may not have the highly public profile of
UCLA’s medical program or the UCLA Anderson School of
Management, but it has proven its value in the past.
Kent Wong, the center’s director, gained national media
attention as an important source of knowledge during the Southern
California supermarket strikes in 2003. As one of the few academics
who specialize in labor relations, he was cited in publications
ranging from the Daily Bruin to the Sacramento Bee and the
Christian Science Monitor.
Every year, hundreds of students take classes facilitated by the
center, including a General Education Cluster called Work, Labor
and Justice, and a class taught by Rev. James Lawson, a civil
rights leader who worked with Martin Luther King Jr.
The center also runs the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, which
educates workers and offers the nation’s only Spanish
language union leadership program.
The center also devotes significant resources to the study of
immigration and its impact on labor issues. Such study is crucial
in a state with as much immigration as California.
All of these programs would face elimination if the center was
with the proposed budget cut.
The reason behind the governor’s proposal for the dramatic
and targeted cut is largely unknown. Gov. Schwarzenegger’s
office failed to respond to the Daily Bruin’s multiple
requests to comment on the issue. But, considering his outspoken
support for California businesses, it isn’t difficult to see
why the governor might underestimate the value of a center that
focuses on labor issues.
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed cut also raises serious
questions about the university’s autonomy. Though the UC is a
state-funded system, it was purposefully set up to be independent
from the whims of the governor and legislature. While the state
sets the overall budget, it should not have the authority to direct
whole disciplines of research.
The specific demand of reduced funding for the Labor Center sets
a bad precedent that could extend to any program that falls in the
bad graces of the state government. Popularity among politicians
should never determine a program’s academic value. The UC
labor centers are an invaluable resource that should not be subject
to the whim of Gov. Schwarzenegger.