Berkeley Labor Center’s Laurel Lucia Steps Into New Role to Boost Worker Power Statewide
Laurel Lucia has worked at the UC Berkeley Labor Center for 15 years. She recently took on a new role as the center’s deputy executive director of programs.
In her new job, Lucia will assist in coordinating the center’s eight different programs — including low-wage work, the green economy, technology, retirement security, and healthcare — and oversee 40 staff members.
Lucia took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to Organized Labor about her new role, the center, and Trump 2.0
This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Organized Labor: What’s your vision for this role?
Laurel Lucia: We’ve increasingly been doing more work across programs at the Labor Center. For example, healthcare and the low-wage work programs work together on the healthcare minimum wage law and analysis of how that will impact workers.
I really hope that in this new role I can help to sharpen the impact that the center has by ensuring that we’re taking on the research and education work that is most likely to support building worker power and an economy that works for all Californians.
OL: What drew you to working in labor?
LL: It was my experience as a Labor Center summer intern that made me want to really focus my career on the intersection of healthcare and labor. Unions are the main force we have to build worker power and make our society work better for everyone. In healthcare, specifically, unions are the main counter-balance to rising prices and profit in the healthcare industry, as well as pushing for more affordable healthcare for everyone — union and non-union workers alike.
I’ve also been a union member at various points in my career, and I’ve really benefited from that experience and from the improved working conditions that came with working under a union contract.
OL: How bad is the Trump administration for working people?
LL: So far, we’ve seen attack after attack on working people in 2025, from federal workers to immigrant workers to healthcare workers. The Trump administration has even been attacking the basic rights we have to bargain and organize. So, I’m deeply concerned about the impacts of the Trump administration on workers.
“Unions are the main force we have to build worker power and make our society work better for everyone. ”
OL: What tangible impact do you see Medicaid cuts having on people in California?
LL: Millions of Californians are at risk of losing coverage due to the cuts in the Trump budget bill, and that includes many low-wage workers who don’t get affordable coverage through their jobs — they could lose their Medi-Cal coverage entirely.
So, that obviously means reduced access to care for those people who lose Medi-Cal coverage, but it also will weaken hospitals and clinics and other healthcare providers in the state that all of us rely on. Our entire healthcare system depends on federal Medicaid dollars, and that will also have an impact on healthcare jobs and jobs more broadly, across industries.
We estimated that California could lose up to 217,000 jobs due just to the Medicaid cuts in California alone. Most of those jobs are in healthcare, but other industries will also be impacted, like jobs at medical supply companies, food services, and laundry services, and at local businesses like restaurants or retail stores where healthcare workers spend their money.
OL: Have you ever seen a transfer of wealth like this, either in your time or historically?
LL: My understanding is that this is one of the largest transfers of wealth from working families to high-income households and corporations in all of U.S. history. That’s at the core of the Trump tax bill — cutting taxes for the rich and corporations, primarily paid for by cutting Medicaid for low-income people.
OL: What impact does aggressive immigration enforcement have on California workers?
LL: We’ve seen a tremendous increase in ICE arrests this year, and that will only increase further, given that the Trump budget bill significantly increased funding for immigration enforcement. What we’ve already seen is a devastating impact on immigrant families.
There’s research that shows that when children are separated from their parents, it can have life-long negative consequences. We’ve also seen — at least anecdotally — evidence of chilling effects in terms of immigrants being scared to go to work, bring their kids to school, shop in the community, and use public transit.
The ability of immigrant workers to do these basic, everyday activities without fear impacts all of us.
OL: What can the Labor Center do to help mitigate the effects of Trump’s policies?
LL: I think that labor and community groups overall are critical to fighting back against the Trump attacks on workers. The Labor Center can support those efforts through our research and technical assistance by working with students to build their capacity to support workers and join the labor movement and by training rank-and-file labor leaders with the skills they need to organize and win campaigns — not only those in their own workplaces, but in our society overall.
We want to support research on policies that advance labor standards and that mitigate the harm in California from the federal policies that have already passed and will likely continue to pass. We want to do research that helps to ensure that California’s budget meets the needs of all working Californians and their families.