Funding Ideology at California ‘Labor Institutes’: New at Reason

In California, unions are sort of like a fourth branch of government.

Steven Greenhut reports:

One of the ongoing stains on the integrity of the University of California system is its publicly funded labor institutes. They are union-controlled “think tanks” that are about engaging in left-wing political activism rather than balanced thinking. They churn out one-sided studies that provide fodder for union political objectives. Their most recent efforts gave cover to California’s decision to boost the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.

It’s not enough such institutes exist at UCLA and Berkeley. Now, a similar institute may be headed to UC Irvine. “Recently, labor leaders, the UC Irvine’s law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and community advocates, such as former state Sen. Joe Dunn, came together and began working to establish the UCI Community and Labor Project,” wrote the Orange County Employees Association’s general manager, Jennifer Muir, in a Register column last month.

Universities are rightly home to varying ideologies and research. But it’s wrong to publicly fund a think tank that engages in bald-faced advocacy for one particular group. Union leader Muir found it “disturbing” that Assemblyman Matt Harper (R-Huntington Beach) introduced Assembly Bill 2302 that merely urged the UC regents to “refrain” from forming such a center at Irvine.

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