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Workers and Tenants Law and Organizing Clinic

As union density in the United States has been eviscerated and the workforce has shifted away from manufacturing, some employers have used their economic and political power to subject workers to wage theft, unpaid overtime, unstable schedules, harassment, discrimination, and misclassification, and raised obstacles to organizing. In California, workers are susceptible to unlawful treatment, particularly low-wage immigrant, women, and Black workers. The immigration and criminal legal systems deepen the vulnerability of low-wage workers.

Clinic projects include full- and limited-representation litigation, in-depth legal research, policy advocacy, and community education, nearly always undertaken in conjunction with social movement organizations. In 2025-2026, we expect to continue work on the following projects:

• Policy advocacy with California Coalition for Worker Power on retaliation defense;
• Representation of current and formerly detained immigrant workers in private prisons, in conjunction with California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice;
• Representation of women workers subject to pregnancy discrimination in the agricultural sector, with California Rural Legal Assistance;
• Legal research and drafting for Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice and UFCW on contractual defenses of workers against immigration enforcement in their workplaces;
• Legal research and drafting for Pomona Economic Opportunities Center on a wage theft ordinance and wage recovery fund, as well as individual casework;
• Advocacy against the algorithmic termination of drivers, with Rideshare Drivers United;
• Through at least Fall 2025, eviction defense with Tenants Union of Santa Ana; and
• Representation of workers subject to sexual harassment, with UNITE HERE Local 11.

We add new projects on a rolling basis, responsive to local and national advocacy needs. In prior years, clinic teams have litigated retaliation claims in state court on behalf of agricultural processing workers with the United Farm Workers, researched organizing of therapists at the intersection of labor and antitrust law for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, carried out community education programs for Nuestras Manos, and represented Strippers United before the EEOC and the California Labor Commissioner. The WTLO docket builds on work in the Immigrant Rights Clinic between 2011 and 2018 on behalf of hotel and warehouse workers, as well as day laborers and domestic workers.

Working on a multi-worker retaliation case in Workers & Tenants Law & Organizing Clinic was one of the highlights of my law school experience. During our trips to the Central Valley, the worker-leaders constantly inspired my clinic partners and I with their bravery and their commitment to seeking justice, not only for themselves, but for all workers facing similar conditions. The UFW lawyers and organizers taught us about the history of the farm worker movement, and effortlessly demonstrated what it looks like for lawyers to work in solidarity with their clients. All the while, because of the clinic seminar, we never lost sight of the larger racial, economic, and socio-political context in which we were operating.

Erin Black ’23
Attorney, UNITE HERE Local 11, Los Angeles

Learning Aims

We draw on our project work to develop the capacities of creative student attorneys. Seminar classes cover basic advocacy skills, including initiating client relationships, developing case theories, engaging in fact investigation and evaluation, and the use of narrative theory and framing in policy advocacy. Our case rounds sessions are the highlight of the semester for many students, as we gather our practice community of core and advanced clinic students to brainstorm on tactical and strategic issues in our work.

As in all UCI core clinics, students act as first-chair lawyers in WTLO. Students are responsible for relationships with clients, fact investigation in cases, legal claim development, interactions with opposing counsel and investigating attorneys, and appearances before agencies and courts. The advocacy skills that students gain in WTLO is transferable to other contexts, including private practice.

We do all of our work within the larger theoretical frame of racial capitalism, developed by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and others in the Black radical tradition. We train students to use law to make structural interventions, sometimes called movement lawyering, a practice frame that is especially important in this uncertain political economic moment. Finally, we consider how abolitionist thinking may point toward new, hopeful horizons for lawyers and clients in seemingly intractable social problem areas.

Case Example: Detained Workers

WTLO students have been supporting individuals detained at two detention facilities in Bakersfield and Adelanto, operated by the GEO Group, Inc. In June 2022, a courageous group inside the Bakersfield facility initiated a labor strike (and later in 2023, a hunger strike). They were doing janitorial work for $1 per day. After one of the leaders of the strike sat down with ICE and GEO officials to discuss the demands of the group—minimum wage, unspoiled food, clean water, uniforms that weren’t threadbare—he was placed in solitary confinement. The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) had previously successfully led the fight to close a publicly-owned facility in Yolo County and offered immigration counsel to a large number of detainees at the Bakersfield facility. Clinic students set out with CCIJ to convince the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to find that the Bakersfield workers are employees under federal labor law and began filing unfair labor practice charges against GEO. After multiple rounds of briefing, the NLRB decided in January 2025 to prosecute the case against GEO. That decision was overturned one month later. Our work with detained and formerly detained workers continues.

In the News

• Prison company retaliated against detained immigrants, labor board says – Los Angeles Times
• The NLRB has issued unfair labor practice complaints against GEO Group – OnLabor
• National Labor Relations Board Files Complaint Against GEO Group for Retaliation Against Workers at Mesa Verde Detention Facility – CCIJ
• Amazon Effort Shows Difficulty Of Inland Empire Organizing – Law360
• Elected officials, not judges, must end the health crisis in immigrant detention centers – Orange County Register
• UCI Law students helped a group of Fontana warehouse workers secure $80,000 in back wages – KPCC
• UCI Law Clinic Issues Report on Unlawful Labor and Employment Practices by The Westin Long Beach Hotel – Press Release
• Prof. Ashar quoted re: abusive working conditions at Station Casinos in Las Vegas – Public News Service