The Importance of the Labor Center at LBCC

Long Beach City College celebrated the grand opening of the Labor Center through a virtual ceremony and ribbon cutting on Thursday. The Long Beach Board of Trustees partnered with area labor unions, agencies, employers, and organizations to introduce the LBCC Labor Center. 

A lineup of speakers included labor activists Dolores Huerta, Maria Elena Durazo, Ron Herrera, and Ron Miller. 

The event kicked off with the president of Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees, Vivian Malauulu. 

She shared the significance of LBCC having this labor center. “It introduces our students to the benefits of union jobs. It exposes them to the many opportunities they have to apprentice programs, internships and actual employment,” she said. 

The labor center aims to help teach students the value of labor, the history of the importance of being engaged in the collective bargaining process of this country and a great center for information.

The Board of Trustees along with interim Superintendent Lou Anne Bynum shared the benefits the students will have with the new labor center, such as introducing students to union pathways and informing students of the union application process. The labor center will also provide workshops about labor related topics. Topics include women in trade, history of labor and workshops that highlight a variety of industries that LBCC teaches. 

Maluulu then introduced Dolores Huerta, a civil rights activist and labor organizer. She is well known for building the United Farms Workers Union with Cesar Chavez in 1962.  Today, she is the Founder and President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. 

She said she was excited for the labor center because of the importance of unions. 

Huerta said, “The working people are the majority of the people in the country,” explaining why the labor center is such an important part of our society. Working people need organizations like labor unions to represent them, not only on the job, but at the state capitol in Sacramento and at the U.S. Congres, to fight for legislation that will help working people, working families, and their organizations which are labor unions, said Huerta. 

Senator Maria Elena Durazo spoke about her work as a labor and union activist. “We need to protect our essential workers. If we’re gonna call them essential, let’s treat them as essential,” Durazo said. 

Durazo said she was thankful for the opening of the new labor center. She reminded the LBCC community that without unions there wouldn’t be eight-hour workdays, weekends off, paid vacation, health work insurance, and paid holidays, as just some of the benefits that unions have accomplished. 

Lastly, she said, “It is our duty to provide an equal playing field. With the union, the likelihood of that happening is greater.”

Ron Herrera, a labor union member for more than 40 years, spoke more about the importance of labor unions. Herrera is the President of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor. The organization represents more than 800,000 men and women in Los Angeles County. 

“Having a union is having a democracy in the workplace,” said Hererra, explaining that this helps to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Lastly, he said it is of importance to have the youth as part of organizing labor movements in their communities. 

The last speaker was Ron Miller, Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. This council is made up of 140,000 skilled and trained men and women of the affiliated locals. He said the LBCC Labor Center is just what the trades council needs to supplement their program. For example, the Joint Labor Management Apprenticeship program. Both labor and contractors decide curriculum for the program and working conditions. 

The Labor Center is available to help guide and educate students in the many industries of labor unions in California, such as a farm, sea and merchant labor, mechanists. 

Stay tuned for more updates on the Labor Center at Long Beach City College located at the Pacific Coast Campus. 
To watch the grand opening ceremony, click here.