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Downtown Labor Center
675 S. Park View St., 1st Flr
Los Angeles CA 90057-3306
(213) 480-4155
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On Labor Day 2002, the UCLA Downtown Labor Center (DLC) opened its doors on Park View Street, overlooking MacArthur Park. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was led by Governor Gray Davis, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Miguel Contreras, three international union presidents, numerous elected officials, and over seven hundred union members from the Los Angeles labor movement.
A downtown office for the UCLA Labor Center had been a long-term dream of director Kent Wong who commented, "It would be hard to find a better site for the Downtown Labor Center, located near the majority of L.A.'s union halls and worker centers and in the heart of a diverse immigrant community." For the staff of the Labor Center, the DLC is intended to not only build the bridge between the university and the Los Angeles labor community but also to support collaborative projects between unions, immigrant worker centers, and the broader community.
The DLC houses a growing library, workstations for student researchers, classroom space for ESL and SSL classes, a conference room, and staff offices. The four-thousand-square-foot office provides a centrally located meeting space for up to two hundred participants and is frequently used by unions and community partners.
The DLC furthers the existing work of the UCLA Labor Center by offering the nation's first Spanish-language union leadership school, the Colegio de Liderazgo Laboral, an African American Union Leadership School, an Asian-American Union Leadership School, and an LGBT Union Leadership School. Other organizing schools target work at the intersection of various unions and community organizations.
Each summer the Downtown Labor Center also offers a ten-unit service learning class for undergraduates and the full-time Labor Summer Internship Program (LSIP) for graduate students.
The Labor Center staff conduct ongoing labor education training, a variety of conferences and events, and regular brown bag lunches. In addition, two nonprofit organizations are based at the DLC, the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON), a grassroots organization working to improve the lives of day laborers in the United States.
To reserve space at the DLC, contact the office administrator Andrea Arias at 213-480-4155 x206 or arias@irle.ucla.edu.
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