The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) is a multidisciplinary research center advancing labor research and education for economic justice. Through the work of its units, academic department and research initiatives, the Institute powers wide-ranging economic equity agendas that bring UCLA into the Los Angeles community and beyond. Since its founding in 1946, the IRLE has supported educational programs for union members, factory managers, and students at UCLA. Its affiliated researchers led pioneering studies on quality of work life issues, urban unemployment, and public sector unionism. The founding of the IRLE’s Labor Center in 1964 marked the deepening relationship between the university and the region’s highly unionized industrial workforce and, later, those in LA’s booming service economy. Today, the Institute continues to support research on new organizing tactics and emerging labor market issues, as well as forging ties with labor researchers and organizers in Mexico, and across the Pacific region, and through its Labor Studies Department, trains the next generation of student organizers and researchers to confront our current, multifaceted economic challenges.

Learn more at https://irle.ucla.edu/