Below is a press statement detailing Schwarzenegger's veto against funding for University of California labor research centers, namely at UC Berkeley and UCLA.  

This is an on-going issue the centers have to face each year when the budget is drawn out, and is another example of how work pertaining to serving marginalized communities are always under attack and must fight for funding. 

I personally am grateful for the UC Berkeley Labor Center for providing me an internship with Filipinos for Affirmative Action, a community-based organization in the East Bay Area serving the Filipino population. By having me on as an intern, I helped to develop a proposal for the organization to get grants to begin a project regarding Filipino domestic workers' rights.

Research centers such as the ones at Berkeley and LA play critical roles in connecting the academy to the real world, to communities that it studies, which is something that rarely happens in the ivory university towers.

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Governor Schwarzenegger Vetoes Funds for the University of California Miguel Contreras Labor Program

UCLA and UC Berkeley Labor Centers, Institutes for Research on Labor and Employment, and UC labor studies programs de-funded

 September 26, 2008

In a surprise move, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed all funding for the University of California's Miguel Contreras Labor Program just before signing the state budget on Tuesday. Schwarzenegger and California Republican legislators have long targeted the program for elimination, even as it has provided California policy makers with valuable research about the economic and workforce impacts of proposed California policies, such as health care reform and climate change legislation.

We understand that this was a difficult budget year. However, as the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board noted previously when the Governor attempted to eliminate funding for UC labor studies programs, "Schwarzenegger should not be wielding the budget as a crude tool to go after people or institutions he may differ with politically or philosophically, especially those operating within the University of California."

The Governor reached in to the University budget and eliminated the only program at UC directed to labor. By cutting the entire labor and employment research program without any academic review, the Governor's attack violates fundamental principles of academic freedom and university governance. This could set a dangerous precedent for the governor to unilaterally remove any other research and educational programs that he does not like.

The Miguel Contreras Labor Program is named to honor a man whose life's work was dedicated to improving the quality of life for workers. Miguel shared the vision that high quality academic research was key to supporting policy agendas to advance the needs of working families. The Governor's action threatens to deny working people the benefits of the research and educational resources of California's premier public university. The $5.4 million program represents only a small fraction of the funds allocated to business schools throughout the UC system. Yet the working people of California pay taxes to support the University. It is also extremely disruptive and burdensome to the faculty, staff and students who have worked so hard to build and maintain one of the premier labor studies programs in the country.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass released a statement on Tuesday saying, "The Governor has ... broken his promise, again, to fund the Miguel Contreras Labor Institute. I am deeply disappointed in his actions today, and they set the stage for yet another difficult budget in the year ahead."