‘Power in the hands of people’: union leaders push to revive ailing US labor movement Organizers unveil new drive to reverse decline in union membership as workers seek to combat growing wealth inequality

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story covers the announcement of a new campaign to fund worker power and organizing: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Get more labor news here: conta.cc/3Ovi9YS
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Marchers raise a banner during a rally against Prop 187, 1994

#PowerFromThePast Marchers raise a banner during a rally against Prop 187, 1994

Prop 187, an extreme anti-immigrant measure, ignited a wave of organizing and solidarity in Los Angeles in the 90s

📸 PFTP brings you a weekly snapshot of labor history
Learn more at memorywork.irle.ucla.edu

Three unions unite in massive LAUSD strike threat: What's at stake for workers, families Three unions representing nearly 85% of LAUSD's 83,300 workers — teachers, support staff and administrators — threaten to strike on April 14 in an unprecedented alliance.

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story covers the powerful coalition of unions threatening to strike at LAUSD schools: www.latimes.com/california/s...

Get more labor news here: conta.cc/4soCRre
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Dolores Huerta stands on a stage behind a podium, speaking at a "teach in on a new labor movement" at UCLA in 1997

#PowerFromThePast Dolores Huerta speaks at a labor movement teach in, 1997

📸 Power from the Past brings you a snapshot of labor history each week to inspire organizing in the present and future

Today, we celebrates Huerta on the eve of her 96th birthday 🎂

Learn more at memorywork.irle.ucla.edu

How Trump's EEOC is attacking DEI and emphasizing white people Andrea Lucas, the Trump-appointed chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has set a new agenda for an agency that long prioritized vulnerable and underserved workers.

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story covers the EEOC's unexpected pivot to protecting a new group of workers, white men: www.npr.org/2026/03/31/n...

More labor news here: conta.cc/4174jyF
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A black and white photograph shows a street theater performance outside an office building in 1992. A man in a superhero costume defends a woman janitorial worker from a boss by prodding him with a mop.

#PowerFromThePast "Mop Man" defends a worker during a street theater performance at a Justice for Janitors demonstration in 1992.

📸 Power from the Past brings you a snapshot of labor history each week to inspire organizing in the present and future.

Learn more at memorywork.irle.ucla.edu

👀👀👀🎉👀👀

Power from the Past: Inspiring organizing in the present and future The IRLE’s Memory Work Research Initiative announces the relaunch of its labor history website, with new features and refreshed content

Introducing “Power from the Past,” the Memory Work Research Initiative’s labor history digital archive 💪

The relaunched website offers visitors even more photographs, videos and memories documenting Los Angeles’ social movement history.

Learn more here: irle.ucla.edu/2026/04/01/p...

“It Was Time”: Dolores Huerta’s First Interview After “Devastating” Cesar Chavez Expose - Latino USA Dolores Huerta gives Maria Hinojosa her first interview after a New York Times investigation, speaking about being sexually assaulted by Cesar Chavez and the “dark sacrifices” she made for the movemen...

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

In our top story, Dolores Huerta reflects on her decision to disclose the assaults she experienced: www.latinousa.org/2026/03/19/d...

More news here: conta.cc/4cYrHWc
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If you are a survivor of sexual violence, please know that there are people and resources available to support you.

📣 IRLE’s Winter 2026 quarterly newsletter is out now!

Read here: conta.cc/4b6BdFk

Catch up on the latest news from our units including the Labor Center (@uclalabor.bsky.social), Labor Studies and LOSH (@uclalosh.bsky.social) 🗞️ ☕

The State Is Escalating Charges Against Protesters. Labor Must Defend Them. John Caravello is facing decades in prison for an anti-ICE protest. He needs labor to build a national defense campaign.

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story covers harsh legal prosecution for activists and labor's role in their defense: truthout.org/articles/the...

More labor news here: conta.cc/4slSW1c
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The alarming erasure of women in film: 2025 saw fewer women in front of and behind the camera, except among film writers. While 2024 boasted nearly equal numbers of male and female lead actors, the overall trajectory in recent years has shown diminishing numbers for women in the theatrical film industry.

🎞️ Alarming erasure of women in film:
2025 saw fewer women in front of and behind the camera, except among film writers. One would have to look back to 2022 or even 2018 for comparable lows

Top films continue pivotal backslide on BIPOC representation: Despite slight gains in most of the key positions in 2025, the trajectory of the data suggests that BIPOC representation has been on the decline since its peak in 2023.

⏪ Top films continue pivotal backslide on BIPOC representation:
Despite slight gains in most of the key positions in 2025, the trajectory of the data suggests that BIPOC representation has been on the decline since its peak in 2023.

By comparison, BIPOC moviegoers represented the majority of the audience for higher-earning films in genres like animation and horror, and represented about half the audience in action in 2025.

🎬 Genres make a difference at the box office:
White moviegoers represented the majority of the audience for films with genres that ranked the lowest at the box office: biographies, documentaries, and dramas. By comparison...

BIPOC audiences continue to show up big in theaters: BIPOC moviegoers bought the majority of opening weekend tickets for more than half of the top 20 films released in theaters in 2025.

🎟️ BIPOC audiences continue to show up big in theaters:
BIPOC moviegoers bought the majority of opening weekend tickets for more than half of the top 20 films released in theaters in 2025.

Films with more diverse casts keep winning at the box office: Films with main casts that were 41 to 50 percent BIPOC topped almost every metric of success, including median global box office, median domestic box office, average opening weekend rank, widest domestic release, and number of international markets. In contrast, those films with the least diversity (20-percent-or-less-BIPOC casts) performed the worst at the box office.

🍿 Films with more diverse casts keep winning at the box office:
Films with main casts that were 41 to 50 percent BIPOC topped almost every metric of box office success. In contrast, those films with the least diversity (20-percent-or-less-BIPOC casts) performed the worst at the box office.

Hollywood Diversity Report 2026, Part 1: Theatrical

🎬 The latest installment of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report is out now! The newest report looks at the top theatrical releases of 2025, revealing key diversity metrics for audience and awards favorites ⭐

🍿 Read the report at bit.ly/HDR-2026-PT1
Read key findings posted in the thread below! ⬇️

UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report reshapes the industry conversation on representation For more than a decade, the Hollywood Diversity Report has illustrated the connection between diversity and the bottom line in Hollywood

The latest Hollywood Diversity Report launches tomorrow!
In anticipation of its release, read more about @dranachristina.bsky.social's decade of expertise, the report methodology, what makes it unique below.

irle.ucla.edu/2026/03/11/h...

Unions sue over Trump's efforts to nix federal worker job protections Unions representing federal workers on Wednesday renewed their bid to block President Donald Trump from stripping tens of thousands ​of government employees of job protections, making them easier to f...

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story brings the latest on how federal unions are fighting back: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Catch up on more labor news here: conta.cc/4slSW1c
Subscribe at: bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads

CALLING ALL LABOR MOVEMENT RESEARCHERS!

We are proud to announce the 2026 UCLA Strategic Labor Research Conference📢✊

📅 August 7-9, 2026
📍 UCLA School of Public Affairs
📝 Applications open April 1, 2026

🔗 For more details and to join our mailing list for updates, visit: bit.ly/slrc-email

‘Standing up for our workers’: US unions raise thousands for victims of ICE crackdown Labor unions are fundraising and providing mutual aid for workers affected by ICE surges in Minnesota and across US

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story shares how unions are supporting members impacted by ICE: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Catch up on more labor news here: conta.cc/3N7sI3w
Subscribe at: bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads

US union membership soared to 16-year high in 2025 despite Trump assault Union coverage slightly increased last year even as White House tried to eliminate contracts for thousands of workers

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story explains the latest US union membership trends: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Catch up on more labor news here: conta.cc/4tL6lkR
Subscribe at: bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads

📢 Published today: Read the latest report from the UCLA Labor Center, KIWA, and AAPI Data, “Overworked & Under Pressure: A Study of Supermarket Workers in Los Angeles and Orange County Koreatowns”.

Full report: bit.ly/LCOWUP

UCLA Coding Bootcamp for Union Research The UCLA Strategic Research Lab will hold a five-day intensive training in using the power of Python coding to simplify tasks for union research in the early summer of 2026. We will announce the exact...

you love to see it, @uclairle.bsky.social.

More and More Unions Are Joining the Fight Against ICE As armed federal agents terrorize workers across the US, organized labor is increasingly stepping up to respond.

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Our top story covers the growing coalition of unions against ICE: truthout.org/articles/mor...

Catch up on more labor news here: conta.cc/4apKGWE
Subscribe at: bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads

“Generation Union”: The people and strategies powering the labor movement in the 2020s Sociologist Ruth Milkman assessed labor organizing trends and union growth prospects in the 2020s

The U.S. labor movement made gains in the 2020s, but according to top labor sociologist Ruth Milkman (of @cunyslu.bsky.social), recent wins might not be enough to reverse the broader trend of decline.

Learn more about organizers' achievements and challenges here: irle.ucla.edu/2026/02/06/l...

Trump Strips Job Protections From Thousands of Federal Workers

📰 IRLE's Weekly Labor Reads delivers a round up of labor news to your inbox every Friday.

Read about the latest attempt to dismantle the federal workforce in our top story: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...

Catch up on more labor news here: conta.cc/4rCVO9N
Subscribe at: bit.ly/IRLE_LaborReads

From recovery to rebuilding, UCLA's Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) program trains workers how to stay safe on the job, supports advocacy organizations, and carries out research on the labor of wildfires and other climate disaster. @uclalosh.bsky.social!