Work

The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education will use OSI funding to produce research on job quality for males in certain industries less susceptible to outsourcing; to convene black labor leaders to discuss programs the labor movement can develop to improve job quality; and to complete the development phase of a Los Angeles-based worker center. 

Building on these immediate goals, the long-term aim is to develop a participatory research project (in partnership with a community based organization) that examines in greater detail the work experiences of the formerly incarcerated; to work with one union to develop a demonstration project, whereby the union would seek to promote black male employment in unionized jobs; and thereupon to implement the established Los Angeles Black worker center.

 The work of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education also advances Campaign for Black Male Achievement's interest in documenting the ways in which black men are the canaries in the mine signaling distress for other constituencies and highlighting the need for broad-scale structural reform.  The project's focus on the work experiences of formerly incarcerated men also addresses a leading priority of the Open Society Institute's Criminal Justice Fund.

$175,000 |  1 year |  www.laborcenter.berkeley.edu