When the Schwarzenegger administration announced its proposal for mid-year budget cuts, it included what some activists and politicians consider to be a political move – the elimination of the University of California labor research facility.

The UC Institute for Labor and Employment, a program that studies problems of labor and employment facing both California and the nation, is facing cuts of $2 million starting Jan. 1, 2004, and up to $4 million in cuts for the 2004-2005 year. Such cuts, if approved by a two-thirds vote in the Legislature, would effectively wipe out the program.

A program that relies on government funding for its subsistence, the ILE was cut by $2 million last year.

“Our current budget for this year is $4 million for the ILE,” said Ruth Milkman, director of the ILE. “The proposal for the fiscal year beginning in Jan. 1 would eliminate half of the budget and would eliminate the Institute.”

Republican Party members said elimination is the intended purpose of the budget cut to the UC labor institutes.

“(The cuts) should be done,” said State Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, who is the vice-chairman of the budget and fiscal review committee. “It was a Democratic drill a number of years ago to fund union activity. That is inappropriate, and they should not be using the university to set up a special program to benefit unions.”

Ackerman also said if unions desired research programs, they should provide the funding themselves.

Labor activists, however, have said they will not allow ILE funding to be cut. Letters are being sent to legislators, UC President Robert Dynes and UC chancellors to voice concern over the proposal.

“It’s devastating that they are talking about cutting all of the funds to the ILE when it is desperately needed,” said Dolores Huerta, UC Regent and labor activist. “A very important majority of people in the U.S. are working people. God willing the proposal won’t go through.”

This proposal is coming at a time when there are extensive budget cuts being made around California. Within the UC, there are also $18.4 million in proposed unallocated cuts, and a reduction in UC K-12 outreach programs by a proposed $12.2 million.

“The state is facing a fiscal crisis,” said Vincent Sollitto, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger. “If we do nothing, we will go bankrupt, so we must reduce spending to save our functions. The core function at the UC is to teach, and we are doing everything we can to protect that.”

The ILE is not the only institute that would be affected by the proposed cuts. Within the UC system, the ILE is a part of a network of other organizations such as the Center for Labor Research and Education, known as the Labor Center, which provides workers access to UC research and UC students access to information about labor and unions.

With cuts to the ILE, groups such as the Labor Center would also suffer.

“A vast majority of our funding comes from the ILE,” said Kent Wong, the director at the UCLA Labor Center. “Our program would be drastically reduced.”

Not only would programs directly affiliated with the ILE be affected by the budget cuts, but labor unions would lose a resource for information and education for their union members.

“The ILE is the only program of its kind that specializes in research of workers in California,” Wong said. “It is a point of access for workers into the University, and it conducts public research that would otherwise not occur.”

In view of the $14 billion budget deficit currently facing California, some believe $4 million would have little impact in helping to balance the budget.

“It is strictly a political move because it would not be that costly to keep it going,” said Rita Kern, the UCLA chapter president of the University Professionals and Technical Employees union.

Likewise, State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, said the governor’s administration was pushing its own agenda. Instead of allocating the budget cuts, she said it should be up to the UC to decide where cuts are made.

“I don’t think we will totally be able to prevent cuts at the UC because we are facing such a big budget deficit right now,” Kuehl said. “If the UC budget is cut further, it should be left to the university to what gets cut and not the governor.”