Labor Day Special: L.A.'s Labor History

What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin

It was just a year ago that Los Angeles was the focus nationally and internationally of the Hot Labor Summer of 2023. With workers in various industries taking to the streets and demanding better pay and working conditions, and with overwhelming public support, the message was clear: Los Angeles is a labor town.
But it wasn't always that way. Los Angeles was once known as one of the most anti-union cities in the country. On this Labor Day weekend, Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center walks us through the ups and downs of the history of organized labor in Los Angeles -- and reveals how victories and losses here shaped the labor movement nationally.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
UCLA Labor Center
Memory Work Los Angeles
Cal Federation of Labor - Labor History
LA Stories: Labor Movements in Los Angeles

Miguel Contreras: Legacy of a Labor Leader

Mike Garcia and the Justice for Janitors Movement

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

Voices from the Front Lines: Organizing Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles

From Mission to Microchip: A History of California Labor by Fred Glass (book)

Chapters

1. Labor Day Special: L.A.'s Labor History (00:00:00)

2. LA's Anti-Union History (00:03:58)

3. Bombing of LA Times Building (00:10:25)

4. The 1930s: New Wave of Organizing & The CIO (00:11:45)

5. Organizing in Hollywood (00:15:05)

6. 1980s: De-unionization in the Reagan Era (00:22:52)

7. Emergence of Maria Elena Durazo (00:24:47)

8. Justice for Janitors (00:28:47)

9. Miguel Contreras: Flexing New Power (00:33:37)

10. Labor & Immigration (00:39:13)

11. May Day 2005 (00:41:34)

12. Hollywood to the Docks: Roots of the Hot Labor Summer (00:44:15)

13. The Hot Labor Summer of 2023 (00:45:24)

14. LA Labor: Challenges & Opportunities (00:49:13)