UCSD Labor Center Committing Wage Theft on Students
I am a student and was working for the UCSD Labor Center educating students about their labor rights, then at the end of the quarter they said they cannot pay me for the work I completed for them. How ironic right?
I asked a third party department at UCSD to help with this situation and they said the Labor Center was adamant about not paying me and started becoming aggressive towards them so they wanted to opt out of helping.
I asked the other staff members at the Labor Center for help and they said they are overworked themselves and are scared of the head and executive director of the center because she yells at them a lot and keeps them overtime without pay, and that it’s best just to keep your head down. How can the executive director host events advocating for change and organizing workplaces and promoting unions while simultaneously mistreating and berating her staff?
What kind of Labor Center exploits labor like this? I signed a W2 and everything with them, so they’re LEGALLY supposed to pay me. I wanted to join unions and organizing to help the working class but if this is what it looks like I don’t want to be in this field at all. I’m financially in debt now and unable to afford rent or groceries. I don’t mean to fall into the “doomer” mindset but what am I supposed to do? Is there any hope to the movement if these “helpful” institutions are also exploiting us?