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Jobs and Labor

From unionization to the green transition, California workers are demanding a say in the future of labor. Learn about the history of labor organizing, the challenges of informal work and the effort to build a new, equitable economy.

Katheryn at the Ontario airport | Still from "Nightshift"
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Caridad - Los Angeles Street Vending Campaign - City Hall
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56:52
City Rising

The Informal Economy

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The reason for the "otherness" of Los Angeles has been named differently in different seasons, but all the interpreters of our re-read city have actually been trying to identify its original sin.
It is difficult to characterize the El Monte Berry Strike as a tangible victory for the Mexican and working class communities; yet it served to awaken the class consciousness of a generation of labor organizers that would continue to participate in str...
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The terrible worker conditions on Mexican farms are getting a lot of attention lately. But it's not much better for agricultural workers in the United States.
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A new court ruling looks at child slavery in chocolate fields abroad. But questionable child labor practices go on in the U.S. as well.
Jobs sign.
Employment is still sluggish, with no improvement in sight. I know you aren't what you do, but the joblessness is getting awfully personal.
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Without Japanese and Mexican American labor, the Valley's image of "whiteness" would not have been possible.
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Day Labor Theater Without Borders performs plays based on stories from day labor communities.
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Not much is left on the northeast corner of First and Broadway where a series of blasts shook downtown Los Angeles to its foundations, dramatically capping off decades of class warfare and labor struggle.
You can't buy insurance against the chaos in phantom governments like the Central Basin Municipal Water District.
Currently, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle about 40 percent of the nation's entire containerized trade from Asia but competition is rising quickly.
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Baseball enabled Mexican Americans to create connections that helped buoy working class communities, and even contributed to unionization efforts amid widespread discrimination.
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How one Santa Barbara winery is changing the way agricultural labor is perceived and rewarded.
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