Earning your master’s degree in Labor Studies at the UMass Labor Center puts you right at the center of the issues and debates around labor, work, and social justice.

For over fifty years, we have built one of the premiere graduate programs in Labor Studies in the United States. With a near 100% placement record, our graduates are in high demand to join our over 1,000 alumni in key position in the labor movement and social justice organizations.

Labor is changing. As the attacks on labor have intensified, unions have been taking bold new directions. They have also combined efforts with a wide variety of alt-labor organizations, building strong connections with new social movements in broad-based coalitions for justice. Become one of our graduates who are at the forefront of many of these new and exciting developments to build justice and dignity in the workplace and the community, here and abroad.

Applications Re-Opened and New Scholarships Available for Limited-Residency Union Leadership and Activism Program

The UMass Labor Center is excited to announce that we have extended the enrollment deadline and have scholarships for qualifying students to begin our limited residency program this July.

"Stories from 40 years of labor struggles and victories"

Please join us on June 7, from 4pm-6pm, for a reception to celebrate the contributions of Bruskin and Wilson to the university's archives.

Labor Center Conference Addresses Labor in the Age of Trump

On March 2-3, the Labor Center called together 200 leading labor scholars and labor and community activists to document the impact of the Trump-era policy changes on workers and their union and to chart the way forward.

March 2-3: Two Day Conference on Labor in the Age of Trump

We are calling together leading labor scholars and labor and community activists to document the impact of Trump-era policy changes on workers and their unions and to chart the way forward.

New Labor Center Working Paper on the State of Labor and Employment in Massachusetts

A new Working Paper on The State of Labor and Employment in Massachusetts is now available from the Labor Center. Authored by David Pihl, Jasmine Kerrissey, and Tom Juravich, this report examines the changing nature of employment, unionization rates, the union wage difference between union and non-union workers, union organizing activity, and a number of union campaigns from the past year.

Labor Center hosts 42nd Annual UALE Northeast Summer School for Women in Unions and Workers Organizations

The University of Massachusetts was proud to host the 42nd Annual UALE Northeast Summer School for Women in Unions and Workers Organizations.

The bi-lingual program was held on campus from July 22-July 26 and brought together over 130 participants from around the region to participate in skill building workshops, cultural activities, and educational sessions on current labor challenges, taught and shared by labor educators, union staff and officers, and worker organization activists.

The Labor Center

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