Welcoming Labor to the University: 1947-1960

With tremendous investments made by the federal and state governments, UCLA grew to some twenty thousand students in the postwar period. Los Angeles industries expanded massively in the aftermath of wartime mobilization and the emergent consumer economy. While campus life could feel far away from the steel mills, auto plants and garment shops in the city’s humming manufacturing belt, IIR faculty brought the concerns of industrial life to Westwood. Their research explored the intricacies of collective bargaining agreements, puzzled over the changing nature of labor law and developed strategies for managing “human relations” at work.

Paul Dodd served briefly as the Institute’s director before becoming the Dean of the College of Letters and Science. Dodd was followed at the Institute by economist Edgar Warren, who had previously served on the U.S. Conciliation Service. During these years, faculty associated with the Institute taught undergraduate and graduate courses in economics, political science, psychology, business administration and history. The Institute also maintained a growing library collection that included contemporary scholarship and historical union journals and magazines.

The Institute also developed a thriving extension program serving union workers, industrial managers and the general public. During summer months, the Institute hosted intensive training programs for leaders of the American Federation of Labor, the United Steelworkers and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union. The Institute also offered training classes for personnel managers and hosted an annual national conference in collaboration with the IIR at Berkeley. By the mid-1950s, a staff of four instructors taught more than 100 extension classes a year to over 3,000 working adults in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Ventura.

In the early years of the Cold War, however, the IIR’s outreach to labor unions also brought controversy. When the IIR invited British labor scholar Harold Laski to speak on campus in 1949, UCLA officials blocked the event as part of a wider effort to prevent leftists from speaking on campus. Shortly after, the Regents issued a new anti-communist loyalty oath that marked the limits of academic freedom on campus.

1947
The IIR and the rising tide of anti-union legislation

International Ladies Garment Workers Union rally against Taft-Hartley Act in Los Angeles, Calif., c. 1948 / UCLA Library Special Collections

In 1946, the same year the IIR was founded, the Republican Party reclaimed legislative majorities in Washington by promising to discipline organized labor. Following a massive wave of strikes by workers struggling to hold on to gains won during World War II, Republicans and segregationist Southern Democrats added a series of anti-union amendments to the National Labor Relations Act. The resulting Taft-Hartley Act prohibited a wide range of strike actions and created new avenues for states to prohibit labor organizing.
1948
Continuing worker education at the IIR
Group shot of attendees of the Summer Labor Institute at Asilomar, c. 1948 / IRLE Archives

Even as political attacks on organized labor intensified, the tremendous growth of postwar industrial production gave workers powerful new leverage on the job. By the mid-1950s, nearly a third of all non-agricultural California workers were represented by a union. At UCLA, IIR faculty continued to expand the project of workers’ education, bridging the divide between campus and the workplace. In 1948, the IIR revived the Summer Labor Institute at the Asilomar conference in partnership with the California State Federation of Labor. The Summer Labor Institute convened scholars and workers to connect the history of the labor movement to contemporary economic trends and innovations in labor law and social policy.

1948
1950
IIR and the fight for economic democracy
Illustration from the IRLE report, “Standards of Wage Determinants,” 1960 / IRLE Archives

During the Korean War, IIR faculty member Benjamin Aaron and future IIR researcher Paul Bullock served on the federal government’s Wage Stabilization Board (WSB). The Board’s mandate puzzled over a seemingly technical question: how to keep a “hot” wartime labor market from causing inflation to spike. To answer that question, the government needed to reckon with inflation as a gauge of labor’s increased power to demand a greater share of the wealth it produced. For Aaron and Bullock, bodies such as the WSB represented an innovative form of economic democracy that recognized the need to involve workers directly in the policymaking process, a commitment that would shape the research agenda of the IIR for decades to come.
1951
Disability on the line
Illustration from the IRLE report, “Employing the Seriously Impaired,” 1951 / IRLE Archives

The IIR sought to educate the wider public on the many facets of “industrial relations” through the publication of short, easily accessible pamphlets. One early pamphlet by Robert Melcher, a seriously wounded World War II veteran, explored the challenges facing disabled workers in the labor market and anticipated the movement for disability justice.

1951
1956
Growing IIR footprint on campus

IIR faculty and students on UCLA campus c. 1950 / IRLE Archives

As student enrollment at UCLA increased by leaps and bounds during the first postwar decade, the IIR grew in tandem. By 1956, IIR faculty taught a wide range of unique courses ranging from the history of the labor movement to collective bargaining and contract enforcement to the impact of technological change on workers. The IIR also noted growing demand for specialists in these fields. The Institute’s Certificate Program in Industrial Relations (cost: a $5 enrollment fee) boasted an annual enrollment of 3,000 students.
1958
Labor education and labor politics on the ballot
Campaign associates in front of the Canoga Park field office for the “No on Proposition 18” campaign, 1958 / California State University Northridge. University Library Special Collections & Archives

A decade after the Taft-Hartley Act passed, organized employers and allied politicians sought to roll back union gains further in the workplace and in politics. During the 1958 midterm elections, anti-union forces put “right-to-work” initiatives on the ballot as Proposition 18 in six states, including California. The growth of labor education undoubtedly helped shift public opinion of unions in the economy and politics. This included ongoing worker education programs and pioneering efforts to bring “industrial relations” into high school classrooms, as well as the IIR’s robust research. Voters overwhelmingly rallied against the ballot proposition, ensuring its defeat in November 1958.

1958