IRLE Publications

UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment publications can also be found at eScholarship® which provides scholarly publishing and repository services that enable departments, research units, publishing programs, and individual scholars associated with the University of California to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship. Learn more here.



This paper addresses how interest associations have responded to the entry of digital-platform corporations into taxi and limousine markets; whether and why interest associations have regarded the market-disrupting strategies of these corporations as a unifying threat or as an opportunity to pursue and enforce their particularistic interests; and what role existing associational fields play in shaping interest associations’ responses.

Global Retail Landscapes

Chris Tilly, Francoise Carré

May 17, 2020

Global Research, Publications, Working Class History, Research Project

This research project, led by IRLE director Chris Tilly, looks at variations and change in retail job quality in the US in the context of global comparisons with Mexico and several European countries, including Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Examined through the lens of both the Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution, this study encourages discussion surrounding ensuring quality education and teacher labor protections as human rights in the hopes of bringing justice and change to classrooms.

From Coors to California: David Sickler and the New Working Class

Kent Wong, Julie Monroe, Peter B. Olney, and Jaime A. Regalado

February 28, 2019

Immigration, Publications, Working Class History, Book/Edited Volume

This book captures some of Sickler’s historic campaign victories, from his leadership of the national Coors Boycott to unprecedented organizing drives with immigrant workers, often in direct challenge to the leadership of US labor.

Drawing on the case of restaurant workers in Los Angeles, this study analyzes tip work, the bundle of social relations and labor experiences framed by tips in commercial settings.

How Can Universities Foster Educational Equity for Undocumented College Students: Lessons from the University of California

Dr. Laura E. Enriquez, Dr. Edelina M. Burciaga, Tadria Cardenas, Biblia Cha, Vanessa Delgado, Miroslava Guzman Perez, Daniel Millán, Maria Mireles, Martha Morales Hernandez, Dr. Annie Ro, Daisy Vazquez Vera

January 19, 2019

Publications, Young Workers, Policy Brief

This report examines what universities can do to promote the educational equity of undocumented students and focuses on the University of California system, nine undergraduate educational institutions that have supportive institutional policies.

Revelatory and sympathetic, Labor's Mind reclaims a forgotten chapter in working-class intellectual life while mapping present-day possibilities for labor, higher education, and digitally enabled self-study.

No One Size Fits All, Worker Organization, Policy, and Movement in a New Economic Age

Janice Fine, Linda Burnham, Kati Griffith, Minsun Ji, Victor Narro, Steven Pitts

December 15, 2018

Economic Justice, Publications, The Future of Work, Working Class History, Book/Edited Volume

Despite formidable obstacles, this volume shows that vibrant, creative experimentation has never ceased, resulting in new approaches that pair organizing with mechanisms that support bargaining.

More Than A Gig: A Survey of Ride-Hailing Drivers In Los Angeles

Saba Waheed, Lucero Herrera, Ana Luz Gonzalez-Vasquez, Janna Shadduck- Hernández, Tia Koonse, and David Leynov

May 18, 2018

Gig Economy, Publications, The Future of Work, Report

This report captures the reality of TNC drivers in the so-called “gig economy,” foregrounds the experience of drivers, and describes what this labor entails.

This analysis examines whether heat-related health outcomes occur more frequently in communities with higher proportions of residents working in construction, agriculture, and other outdoor industries.