<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)"> <title>Message</title> <style>  </style> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <div class="Section1"> <blockquote style="margin-top: 5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 5pt;"> <h1 style="text-align: center;" align="center">UC LABOR STUDIES PROGRAMS UNDER ATTACKAGAIN</h1> January 12, 2005   Last year unions and academics waged a successful campaign to save labor research and education at the University of California.  Thousands of supporters flooded the state capitol with letters and faxes calling for saving the ILE (Institute for Labor and Employment), and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez crafted an agreement with the governor and the UC to fund labor studies.  However, in his budget plans of January 10, 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed once again to eliminate these programs.   This is an affront to workers and academics alike.  Unions fought hard to make the UC responsive to the research and educational needs of working people, so this latest proposal to eliminate labor studies can only be interpreted as part of a political attack on labor. Academics who study workers’ issues have access to only a fraction of the resources available to those who study business, and the elimination of even these resources is essentially an assault on academic freedom.   The University of California has issued a statement about the governor’s budget proposals saying that, as for the elimination of funds for labor studies, it will “work with the governor and Legislature” to “gain restoration of this funding.”  This reflects an important commitment by the UC that should be supported by unions and the general public.   We hope that California unions will also make a public statement about the outrageous political attacks on workers in this new budget proposal that include the elimination of funds for UC labor studies programs.    At the UCLA and UC Berkeley Centers for Labor Research and Education, we are committed to continuing to provide research and education that addresses the needs of unions and workers in California. We will keep you updated as our campaign progresses.  For more information, please contact UCLA Labor Center director Kent Wong at 310-794-5983 or UC Berkeley Labor Center chair Katie Quan at 510-643-7213.   <a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2005/jan10.html" eudora="autourl"> </a>   </blockquote> </div> </body> </html>