Labor Studies

TIME: UPS Is Failing Part-Time Workers Like Me

July 25, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

Source: TIME (authored by CSUDH alumnus Cesar Castro)

Like many working-class people of color living in Los Angeles County, I work to support myself and my family. This includes my four younger siblings and single mother.

I work hard at UPS part time and just completed my degree in labor studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. I’m a proud member of Teamsters Local 396, which represents transportation and sanitation workers in Southern California. As a shop steward, I apply my knowledge to help my co-workers at UPS advocate for themselves.

Every worker should be able to sit directly across from their employer to negotiate the working conditions they deserve. I’m honored to do that, serving on the UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee as we bargain our new five-year union contract covering more than 340,000 workers at UPS. We have had enough and we are ready for the contract we deserve at UPS.

Unfortunately, when we got to the part of negotiations where we bargain over wages, we hit a big roadblock. UPS walked away from the table on July 5, refusing to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer. It was disheartening to hear that from the employer I work so hard for, an employer that made a record-setting $100 billion last year. Part-time employees work extremely hard to make this company its profits, and we deserve to share in that success.

As thousands of UPS Teamsters practice picketed, rallied, and mobilized across the country, UPS bowed to the pressure, and on July 19, reached out to the union to resume negotiations next week. UPS needs to deliver a fair contract with the wages we deserve.

As a part-time worker at the UPS Compton hub, I make $18.85 an hour. UPS advertises that their jobs pay an average of $95,000 a year, but that’s not what I’m making. My co-workers and I struggle to make ends meet on low wages, especially in a state like California, which has among the highest living costs in the U.S.

Inflation is rising, and necessities like rent and food are becoming increasingly difficult to afford. Housing is a major expense for individuals and families. According to a recent National Low Income Housing Coalition report, a worker must earn an hourly wage of $42.25 and work full-time to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Southern California. For cities like Los Angeles, Berkeley, and San Diego, a single person must make more than $76,000 to “live comfortably,” according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator.

Income inequality in the United States has grown dramatically for decades. The wealthiest Americans are getting richer while the rest of us struggle to keep up. Prices for goods and services are increasing, but paychecks are not keeping pace. The result is a growing number of workers who are forced to choose between paying for rent or groceries, and that’s simply not acceptable.

This trend is reflected in the wages of part-time workers at UPS. UPS Teamsters are united around negotiating wages that respect the vital role we play in the company and the economy. The starting rate for a part-time UPS worker is $15.50 an hour. We do important work and are essential to the company’s success, but we are not paid accordingly. This is a multibillion-dollar corporation that can afford to do better by its workers.

Raising wages for part-time workers is the right thing to do. It’s also good for the economy. When workers have more money to spend, they put it back into their communities, supporting local businesses and creating jobs. This boosts economic growth and benefits everyone, continuing a cycle of shared progress.

UPS needs to raise wages, so this company’s workers can live with dignity and security. Part-timers at UPS, like myself, overwhelmingly want full-time jobs. We often have to wait years for that opportunity and, in the meantime, work for wages that cannot sustain an individual, let alone a family.

The best way for UPS to retain dependable workers is by paying us enough to live and creating opportunity. The system that currently exists at UPS means workers have to cobble together multiple jobs to make ends meet. This is not good for us, and it is not good for the company. It’s time for UPS to recognize the important role that part-time workers play in the company’s success and make some serious investments in our labor for the long-haul.

Just Transitions Listening Project Seeks Solutions for Fossil Fuel Employees

April 29, 2021 By Paul Browning

Vivian Price, professor of Interdisciplinary Studies/PACE and coordinator of Labor Studies. — Vivian Price, professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Alternative energy industries are booming, driven by the growing corporate, consumer, and government awareness of the impacts of climate change. As growth continues, how will the tens of thousands of unemployed fossil fuel workers find “just transitions” to good-paying jobs they will need to support their families?

With that question in mind, CSUDH Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies Vivian Price joined a team of five researchers from universities across the country to launch the Just Transition Listening Project (JTLP) in the spring of 2020, led by the Labor Network for Sustainability.

Their goal was to learn from workers, and environmental justice and Indigenous activists about transitions in the past and their hopes for the future. The research culminated in a comprehensive report, “Workers and Communities in Transition,” that documents how these groups suffered through poorly handled shutdowns and tried to create positive solutions.

Serving on the JTLP organizing and research teams, Price, who is also former coordinator of the Labor Studies program at CSUDH, played a significant role in the research process, conducting nearly one-third of the more than 100 virtual interviews with groups across the country and participating in writing the report.

Along with Vivian Price, the Just Transition Listening Project was led by Drs. Mijin Cha, assistant professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College; Dimitris Stevis, professor of Political Science at Colorado State University; Todd Vachon, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University, and Maria Brescia-Weiler, an environmental and labor researcher.

“Working on the report was an extraordinary opportunity to bring in my own expertise on labor, especially my work with fossil fuel workers and the trades to bear on this question,” says Price. “Through this research I have been able to expand my research on environmental justice, something else I have worked on extensively in the past.”

The energy shift is of growing concern among climate justice advocates, who are worried about the future, not only for people in fossil fuel, but many others who have suffered transitions in the past and know firsthand what workers and communities need.

“Hundreds of thousands of workers could be affected, as well as small businesses that are dependent on fossil fuel industries. It also affects jobs in the public sector,” says Price.

One of the transition cases the team studied focused on a coal power plant community in New York State. “When the plant shut down, there was less money to pay local teachers because the property tax from the plant provided substantial support for firefighters, police, and teachers,” Price explains. “There are unexpected repercussions when an industry is in decline. In that town, a number of the stakeholders came together and were able to get the state to set up a fund to help fill the gap.”

Three main themes arose during the listening sessions with workers and members of fossil fuel-dependent communities, according to Price, which undergirded the JTLP report: the scope of the problem and who is being affected; the process by which groups came together to negotiate a plan; and an analysis of past and future pathways to solutions.

Since 2016, Vivian Price has collaborated with Ellie Zenhari, associate professor of art and design at CSUDH, to document working conditions at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and in South Bay oil refineries. Funded by CSU Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity and other grants, they visited workplaces and produced several projects with their students. They also worked with the Watts Community Labor Action Committee on several initiatives on environmental racism.

The team looked at seven case studies of imminent or looming shutdowns where labor unions came to the table with partners, such as local residents, environmental justice advocates, and Indigenous communities to learn from each other and build a shared vision for change.

“We wanted to elevate the voices of people most impacted by industrial transition. In the United States, labor unions are not formally included in policy decisions like they are in Germany, for example, so all the protection they have is contract language. When a plant shuts down, a key problem they face beside loss of a job is the loss of medical care.” Price says.

Price added that local residents have mixed feelings about shutdowns. “They may be adversely affected by the pollution, they may have relatives who were employed, they may have found themselves excluded from employment because of past bias” she says. “We were interested in understanding how groups with different interests have found ways to work together.”

The Labor Network for Sustainability organizing committee included labor leaders, environmental and Indigenous activists, and researchers, providing a strong basis for developing interview questions. One set that emerged from discussions was aimed at workers; another set was aimed at people who were grounded in environmental justice and leadership. The aim for both was to take an oral history approach to understand the whole person.

“We agreed to keep everything anonymous to maintain confidentiality, so that people felt they wouldn’t be put in an awkward position in the future. Some of the hardest questions focused on how to gain trust among the different groups, what people are willing to compromise over, and how to create programs that are well funded and include oversight for those most affected,”Price shared.

“Some workers are offered jobs in other states and have to relocate, breaking up families and communities,” she adds, “but there are models of proactive programs that prepare workers for change, provide individual counseling, training and wage replacement for part-time and seasonal workers as well as full-time employees.”

The final component of the study focused on solutions and proposed ideas for the future. Based on its findings, the JTLP report outlines recommendations for policymakers, labor and environmental organizations, and for future research. Together with testimonies from interviewees, these were presented at a Congressional briefing in March 2021.

A key finding in the report was that labor law needs to change to make it easier for workers to unionize and make new industries provide good pay and working conditions. Plans for supporting workers and communities in transition need to be developed and well-funded to focus on local conditions and specifically address the needs of workers and disproportionately impacted communities. The federal government also needs to play a key role.

The report also argues that sustainable development needs to be informed by the people most impacted. “The green economy is not without challenges. Solar and wind farms are known to take over public land and be built on Indigenous territory,” says Price. “So, there are definitely more questions to ask; ”˜How can we use the urban built environment for solar rather than putting the burden on sacred desert land,’ and ”˜How do we structure the economy so that it protects life and the planet rather than being based on making a profit?’”

CSUDH Hosts Beam Signing Ceremony for Innovation and Instruction Building

November 12, 2019 By Paul Browning

A rendering of CSUDH's Innovation and Instruction Building. — A rendering of CSUDH’s Innovation and Instruction Building.

(Carson, CA) – California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) will host a beam signing ceremony on Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. for its new four-story, 107,600-square-foot Innovation and Instruction Building to mark a new phase in its construction, and celebrate its role in the transformation of the physical campus. The building is scheduled to be open in time for fall classes in 2021.

During the ceremony, CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham and members of the campus community will sign their names and messages on the last steel beam to be placed during the framing phase of the Innovation and Instruction Building.

Adding their mark during the beam signing ceremony will be Carson City Council members and other civic leaders. Carson Mayor Pro Tempore Cedric Hicks, a CSUDH alumnus, will join Parham and others providing remarks during the event.

“With its prominent location on Victoria Street, the stunning new Innovation and Instruction Building will serve as a gateway to the university, and significantly position our faculty and staff to provide first in class academic and co-curricular experiences for our students,” said Parham. “When combined with the soon to open Science and Innovation Building, and the new residence hall, which will serve as a living-learning community, these structures will improve our instructional and research capacity, and transform the aesthetic ambiance of the Dominguez Hills campus community.”

The Innovation and Instruction Building, which will house CSUDH’s College of Business Administration and Public Policy, will offer 25- to 120-seat classrooms, active learning classrooms, case study rooms, and computer labs on three floors for the entire university to utilize. With its prominent location on Victoria Street, the building will serve the campus as well as the community.

Designed with that multi-functionality in mind, the building’s first-floor, 120-seat classroom can be converted to a banquet hall when classes are not in session, and with a 250-seat auditorium on the same level, the facility transforms into an event center that can host conferences and events year-round. The grand lobby on the first floor will feature a multi-story atrium, a cafÃ©, and a large media wall to welcome students and visitors.

The Innovation and Instruction Building is one of three projects underway at CSUDH. Scheduled to open for classes for fall semester 2020 are the nearly complete, 91,000-square-foot Science and Innovation Building, and the new four-story student housing complex.

To learn more about all the construction taking place at CSUDH visit www.csudh.edu/fpcm/major-capital-projects/construction-updates.

‘Harvest of Loneliness’ Enlightens New Generation of Toros in Uncertain Times

November 8, 2017 By Paul Browning

Seven years since its release, “Harvest of Loneliness,” Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies Vivian Price’s award-winning film about the 1940s-1960s farm labor Bracero Program, continues to “deliver a much-needed fact check” regarding the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States. The documentary was screened twice on campus recently as part of the Chicana and Chicano Studies, Department 2017-2018 Film Series at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH).

“Harvest of Loneliness,” which debuted in 2010 and was co-directed by Price, who also serves as coordinator of the labor studies program at CSUDH, counters the U.S. government’s official story regarding the creation of the Bracero Program–to fill an alleged labor shortage during WWII. Price, and co-director Gilbert Gonzalez, use evidence and testimony to illustrate how the program instead served to counteract major drives organized by the farm worker union, such as the 1941 Limoneira Ranch strike in Santa Paula, and undermine farm worker unionization in the United States.

The film is told in large part by interviews of “Braceros,” who were among the millions of Mexican men who worked from 1942 to 1964 in the Bracero Program. The “temporary contract worker program” led to the largest state-managed migration in history.

The recent screenings of “Harvest of Loneliness” were led by Price, who fielded questions from the audiences to provide an opportunity for discussion and to address the lack of information about the Bracero Program. She sat down with CSUDH Campus News Center to share insights about the history and legacy of the Bracero Program, reactions to the screenings, and its context to current fears and unknowns on campus since the cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In this 1959 photo by Henry Anderson, Braceros and their belongings are sprayed with DDT before entering the United States. Courtesy of Vivian Price.

Hidden History

Q: How did the Bracero program last so long given its intent to fill the agriculture workforce during WWII?
A: The program existed not only because the United States government was recruiting Mexican workers, but also because conservative segments of the Mexican government were trying to deter any kind of democratic reform or rebellion in its country. They were willing to see the U.S. as a release valve for people who were basically starving. That helped legitimize the program and helped it become a significant part of the Mexican economy. The U.S. has long supported that conservative element in the Mexican government, and promoted policies that allow the U.S. to utilize Mexican workers as a cheap labor pool.

Q: Since its end, what effect has the Bracero Program had on migration from Mexico?
A: The program laid the foundation for Mexican workers to follow the same path in search of prosperity in the U.S., and as a way to build hope for those who would like to send money to their families back home. That continues today, but many farmers in Mexico remain impoverished due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the dumping of cheap subsidized corn and grain that it exported from the United States to Mexico, making it impossible for them to survive. And here the poor conditions in the fields and exploitation of Mexican and Central American workers continues.

Confronting Fear and the Unknown

Now six decades since the Bracero Program ended, migrant labor in the U.S. is a major political and social issue. The farming and manufacturing industries appear to still rely on this means of labor, and much of that labor force comes to the U.S. illegally. The connection really hit home for the campus community with the cancellation of the DACA program, which protected young children who came with the families – many of whom came here as migrant workers– and only know the U.S. as their home.

Q: How was ”˜Harvest of Loneliness’ received during the screenings?
A: Very well. Students asked such questions as how did we find the former Braceros, about the propaganda, and some shared that they were not aware of, or were never taught about the Bracero Program. Some said that they have had family members who were Braceros, but they didn’t talk about it because of the sadness that erupted in them when they thought about their experiences. So this continues to be an untold story for the most part.

Q: Did any of the interactions with the audience stand out for you?
A: It was really a mixed group–racism effects everyone. I was startled when I asked students during the screenings to raise their hands if any of their family members work in the fields, and a substantial number of students did. One young man came up to me to say, “I’m going to the fields next week.” An African American woman asked, “Do you have hope?” and I responded, “Do you?” She said, “Yes, we have to have hope. We have to fight. We have to do something to make things right.”

Q: Sounds like the film had a profound effect on her. Is that a common reaction?
A: I think most people walk away from the film feeling that there’s a reason to stand up, that knowledge is important, that understanding history is important, and that telling the stories that haven’t been told is critical. The film can also be unifying. We often don’t know each other’s histories. People ask themselves what we can do to stand up for dignity, for democracy, for fairness, and against racism.

Q: Many DACA students and staff see a college campus as safer space to be, even though the CSU Chancellor’s policy of not providing their information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is negated if a subpoena is produced. Should ICE still be a concern?
A: I’m seriously worried about people being dragged off our campus, and students worry about having their family members arrested and detained. One of the questions we’ve been asking in the Academic Senate is, “what policies will we follow if ICE comes to campus?” While Chancellor White’s policy to withhold information is good, there are still a lot of unknowns. But it’s not only a question about if ICE will come on our campus, but also if people lose their DACA status they could also be too scared to apply for financial aid, scholarship opportunities, housing, or they may just drop out. So, as a campus community, we need to educate ourselves to what’s really going on because there’s a lot of fear and lack of knowledge about these issues among the students, faculty and the staff.

Labor, Social, and Environmental Justice Fair Connects Students with Activists

April 24, 2017 By admin

Students, faculty, labor and community organizations from across the greater Los Angeles area will come together to celebrate the Ninth Annual Labor, Social and Environmental Justice Fair hosted by the California State University Dominguez Hills Labor and Social Justice Club and Labor Studies Program from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25.

The day-long fair is designed to connect students and members of the community with local unions and community organizations that are doing social justice work, while enjoying art, music, dance and theater.

“We’re proud to be sponsored by unions, student government and individual donations. We’re overjoyed to have the participation of over 40 social justice organizations with useful resources and information. As attacks on people based on race and religion and free speech mount under this administration, and the rights for a clean environment and good, safe jobs shrink and the very right to organize collectively is in jeopardy, we need to share our resources and work together.” said Vivian Price, Labor Studies Program coordinator and one of the advisors for the fair, which is organized by students. The Rose Black Resource Center is a co-sponsor, and Jonathan Henderson, director of the Center, is a key organizer.

WHO:
Workers’ rights and community leaders, social justice artists and musicians and students from CSUDH and neighborhood high schools and community colleges.

WHAT:
Ninth Annual CSUDH Labor, Environmental and Social Justice Fair.

WHERE:
Loker Student Union East Walkway and inside the Student Union
1000 E. Victoria St. Carson, CA 90747

DATE:
Tuesday, April 25
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Speakers include poets Yosimar Reyes and Claudia Rodriguez, Watts Writers Workshop veteran Odie Hawkins, Indigenous Rights scholar Sara Obenauer. Among the topics of discussion will be how to organize against attacks on workers’ rights, particularly from the Supreme Court and Congress. Know your Rights trainings will be taking place during the day hosted by the ACLU and UNITE HERE, as well as workshops by students in the CSUDH Negotiation Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Program for high school guests.

Students and visitors will hear the sounds of live music including Earth Arrow and Inner City Dwellers. Art groups like Legacy LA and students from CSUDH Art and Design Department will table with innovative opportunities for participants to create art and silkscreen shirts with social justice themes.

The fair is open to the public, with free entry, free food (while supplies last), and parking is only $6 for those without permits.

This event’s sponsors include the California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities; United Food and Commercial Workers; California Faculty Association; the ILWU 13 (International Longshore and Warehouse Union); the ILWU Credit Union; ILWU Pensioners; International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; California Teaching Association; American Federation of Teachers College Guild; Ford & Wallach Law Firm; Lanzone Morgan Law Firm; the Service Employees International Union 721; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; and Associated Students, Inc.

For more information, contact (310) 243-3640.