Do you want to:
Understand what it takes to organize workers
to win better working conditions and higher pay?
Apply your critical thinking skills to on the ground organizing campaigns?
Learn about the exciting campaigns within California's labor movement?
Build lifelong relationships with mentors and fellow students?
Get PAID while doing it?
The Labor Summer Fellowship brings together San Diego and Imperial Valley students and local labor organizations who share a vision for worker justice. Over the course of an 8-week, full-time, paid placement with their host organization, fellows will engage in projects that build worker power on the ground and strengthen the social justice mission of the broader labor movement.
In addition to organizing experience, fellows will receive dedicated mentorship, as well as leadership and professional development training. Fellows will also join a UC-wide Labor Center network — a launchpad for labor-aligned jobs after graduation. Past Labor Summer fellows have gone on to work full-time with labor organizations; others have brought the experience gained to organizing efforts on campus and in their community.
For students passionate about workers' rights — whether you are already organizing for social justice, or looking to start — Labor Summer is an invitation to join this historic moment in organized labor.
Program Dates: June 15, 2026 to August 7, 2026
Application Deadline: March 14, 2026 by 11:59 p.m. PST
