UCLA Strategic Labor Research Conference 2025 Highlights
The UCLA IRLE’s annual conference equipped 200 researchers and organizers with winning campaign strategies and strengthened networks
Willa Needham | August 14, 2025
At the 2025 UCLA Strategic Labor Research Conference (SLRC), researchers from across the U.S. working in the labor movement and allied causes gathered on UCLA’s campus to participate in generative workshops, panels and discussions.
Last weekend marked the third year of the conference, held annually by the UCLA Strategic Research Lab, a project of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE). This year, the SLRC had a distinct sense of urgency, set against a backdrop of political turmoil, economic uncertainty and attacks on vulnerable communities.
“At this critical moment in history, the conference brings together 200 of the brightest minds in labor and other social movements to learn how to use research to better understand what they’re up against, fight smarter and help build people’s power,” said co-organizer of the conference, Professor Chris Zepeda-Millán.
Highlights of the conference included an inspiring keynote address from the legendary organizer Marshall Ganz, a veteran of pivotal campaigns to advance civil rights since the 1960s. Three lively panels detailed historic unionization campaigns, innovative uses of research technology and the role of academic labor centers in strategic research. The conference also offered twenty-five skill-building workshops on topics including “Power Analysis,” “Researching with Workers,” “California Labor Policy Strategies” and many more.
In 2025, the conference convened an even more diverse coalition of attendees than in previous years. For the second consecutive year, the SLRC welcomed a delegation of climate finance researchers affiliated with the Sunrise Project, which graciously provided financial support for the conference. Researchers, organizers and campaigners from housing, climate, labor and other social movements had the opportunity to connect and share strategies.
Nora Flanagan, an organizer and researcher at the Chicago Teachers Union, said she flew to Los Angeles for the conference because she wanted to “level up” her hard skills in data analysis. “And I absolutely did,” she said. But her main takeaway came from her peers:
“It was really great to come out here and learn more about what some of my colleagues specialize in, so I can support them more, and so I can help support our members better. I leveled up in what I came to learn, but I learned a whole lot more.”
The conference was designed to empower social movement researchers like Flanagan with applicable skills, knowledge and strengthened networks. Justin McBride, co-organizer of the conference, said, “We hope SLRC attendees can take the lessons they learned back to their locals and international unions, and ultimately apply them in support of workers who are standing up and organizing to improve their own workplaces. At the end of the day, that is what strategic campaigning is all about.”
“Frankly, I’ve been blown away by [the conference]. I think it is really a wonderful resource for organizing.”
Keynote speaker Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer at Harvard who has worked in the labor movement for more than half a century, was impressed by the unique offerings of the UCLA Strategic Labor Research Conference:
“This conference is terrific because it brings people together who are doing really important, innovative work on understanding the world in which we’re operating and how we can organize more effectively. It brings them together so they can learn from each other and also form the kinds of networks from which collaborative work can come. Frankly, I’ve been blown away by it. I think it is really a wonderful resource for organizing.”
To receive updates about the UCLA Strategic Research Lab, including training camps, events and other happenings, sign up for our mailing list.
The UCLA Strategic Research Lab (SRL) is a capacity-building training hub and network for researchers from labor and community-based organizations. As a research unit of a public university, the SRL seeks to empower strategic researchers through workshops, conferences, research, training camps and networking events.
