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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (3 results)

  • Article
Policy Briefs (2021)
The High Road to Economic Prosperity offers a macro analysis of the California Workforce Development Board’s (CWDB) High Road Training Partnership (HRTP) initiative. The report defines the HRTP model and evaluates the successes and challenges of adopting the high road approach, including recommendations on how to strengthen the HRTP framework and model as the initiative expands. The report finds that HRTPs offer a more inclusive definition of industry leadership and build collective power. HRTPs bring together employers, labor, and community actors to look at their industries from a bird’s eye view and use their collective expertise to find mutually beneficial industry solutions. This values-based approach prioritizes underlying systemic issues like racial inequality. HRTPs move beyond diversity initiatives by identifying racial inequalities and creating tailored workforce development interventions, including sustainable long term policies that can be widely adopted to address the needs of disadvantaged communities. The initiative offers an innovative model for public programs that are responsive to change. HRTPs are continuously experimenting, learning, and refining their interventions, which allows them to respond to external shifts, such as economic downturns and climate change, in real time and work toward solutions that meet the needs of firms, workers, and communities. The HRTP approach advances a shift in measuring workforce development success. Traditional workforce development metrics often measure success by the number — not quality — of job placements. HRTPs also associate success with promoting worker voice and power, systems change, culture shifts, and other qualitatively measured indicators of high road success.
    Cover page: The High Road to Economic Prosperity: An Assessment of the California Workforce Development Board’s High Road Training Partnership Initiative
    • Article
    IRLE Reports (2022)
    The research brief suggests that worker centers are invaluable actors in the state's public workforce development system. Worker centers -- community-based organizations created by and for BIPOC and immigrant job seekers and workers in low-wage industries -- provide a comprehensive alternative to the status quo of workforce development through fostering leadership development, movement building, and systemic change. 
      Cover page: New Directions in Racial and Economic Justice: How California’s Worker Centers Are Bringing Worker Power into Workforce Development
      • Article
      IRLE Reports (2018)

      Ride-hailing, also known as ridesharing and ridesourcing, is where drivers connect withpassengers through Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft,through a phone app. This report, the first comprehensive study of ride-hailing driversin Los Angeles County, is based on 260 surveys, 8 interviews and an extensive policy andliterature review. It captures the reality of TNC drivers in the so-called “gig economy,”foregrounds the experience of drivers, and describes what this labor entails.

      Because of its high population density, an increased demand for service work, and anemergent desire for more independent working conditions, Los Angeles is an ideal site for on-demand ride-hailing companies. Yet the rise of TNCs and other online labor platforms has prompted concerns about the future of essential employment laws, the quality of available work, and whether an economy that works for everyone is attainable. Moreover, uneven regulation has allowed technology companies to flourish in the gray areas of workers’ rights.

      Ride-hailing is non-standard and often temporary work, and there are significant questions around how wages are determined, income instability, job security, and workplace safety. Drivers are currently classified as independent contractors, and thus absorb every risk associated with the work, while companies are freed from ensuring workplace benefits and other protections. In Los Angeles, Uber drivers actually earn less than the mandated minimum wage. Importantly, their classification prevents them from engagingin collective bargaining practices to address a wide range of issues.

      In addition, TNCs operate under laxer regulations than those for taxis and other transportation operators. Many rules set for taxi operation, such as base fares and caps on vehicles, prevent the oversaturation of vehicles and provide a viable income for drivers. Other taxi regulations ensure that services offered are not discriminatory and provide access for those with disabilities. Ride-hailing also impacts public transportation, and has led to a 6% reduction in Americans using bus services and a 3% decline in the use of lightrail service. This year, the number of people taking for-hire vehicles nationally is expected to surpass that of those taking the bus.

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