UC Berkeley Labor Center

Uber driver Duane Mitchell explains the public cost of the rideshare industry, and why everyone should support unionizing efforts: https://capitalandmain.com/california-rideshare-drivers-joins-massachusetts-counterparts-in-unionizing

For Mitchell, the bottom line is that his pay is so low that he owes no state or federal taxes and the public has to make up the difference.

“Whose tax dollars are paying for snow removal and road repairs, or staffing of emergency services like police, fire and EMTs? Not me. I get $3,500 a year in food stamps, and I get another $1,000 a year in heating fuel assistance. In my opinion, every single citizen of Massachusetts should be in favor of what we’re doing,” he said.

California Rideshare Drivers Move Toward Unionizing, Following Massachusetts Uber and Lyft drivers in both states say low pay, rising gas prices and a lack of transparency in how they're compensated have fueled organizing efforts.

Federal Medicaid cuts coupled with budget deficits in California means close to 3 million Californians will lose health care over the next two years. “The need for health insurance and healthcare is not going anywhere,” Miranda Dietz said.

California billionaires are spending big to kill a tax meant to fund health care A California union wants to tax billionaires to fund healthcare. The initiative has drawn fierce opposition from Newsom and Silicon Valley moguls.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-06-16/californias-lithium-valley-students-are-training-for-jobs-that-dont-yet-exist

Imperial Valley College, which says it is temporarily scaling back its lithium programs because of job market uncertainty, offers a case study in the pitfalls of trying to prepare students for emerging fields.

It’s an “incredibly common” challenge, said Betony Jones, a senior researcher in the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s green economy program and a former Biden administration official. Other fields that have faced similar uncertainty because of political and economic factors include solar and advanced manufacturing, which generally require postsecondary credentials.

In California’s ‘Lithium Valley,’ students are training for jobs that don’t yet exist In the Imperial Valley, colleges created training programs in response to a promised lithium industry. Students are still waiting for jobs to arrive.

Day three of the 2026 Labor Summer internship program. Students are getting ready to head out to their host sites next week! East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, SEIU Local 521, SEIU United Service Workers West, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Inc., Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, North Bay Labor Council, North Bay Jobs With Justice, Regional Tenant Organizing Network, UNITE HERE Local 2

Our student interns are at orientation this week, mapping their personal journeys to Labor Summer.