In early February of this year, approximately 300 workers waited to to learn about pre-apprenticeship training, union building, construction trades apprenticeship programs, and career opportunities. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center (LABWC).
LeDaya Epps grew up in foster care until adolescence. When she finished high school, bouncing from job to job with no real career path, she struggled to land steady employment. By 2010, she had three children to care for as well and prospects looked tough. Then in 2013, when the Los Angeles Black Workers Center successfully negotiated an employment agreement with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) her life changed.
For years, the city had been expanding its subway and light rail systems; the Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Train that runs through several traditionally black neighborhoods in South L.A. to the Los Angeles International Airport was next in line and the LABWC sought to ensure that the city's African American workforce benefitted from its construction. Their agreement with Metro mandated that 40 percent of the work hours go to disadvantaged workers. On average, pay for individuals completing apprenticeship programs starts around 50,000; 87 percent of apprentices get hired on full time.[1]
With the help of the LABWC, Epps found employment building the new line. Nineteen more black workers would join Epps laboring on the Crenshaw/LAX LRT line and the agreement stands as one of the organization's signature accomplishments. After completing an apprenticeship, she was soon hired by Walsh/Shea Corridor Constructors and secured a place in the Laborers Local 300 union.
LeDaya Epps, member of the LABWC, worked on the Crenshaw/LAX Transit project. Photo courtesy of LABWC.
When President Obama invited her as a guest at the 2015 State of the Union address, Epp's attendance symbolized her own triumphs and that of the LABWC. Though the agreement with Metro expires next year, the LABWC believes through negotiations it will be able to expand and renew it over the next five years. With the promise of a new football stadium in Inglewood and other large infrastructure projects in the near future, the LABWC hopes to establish similar arrangements in the private sector.[2]
Nearly 20 years after the same community had been caught up in the unrest of the tragic 1992 Rodney King Riots in 2011, the LABWC opened its doors in the heart of South Central L.A. As the LABWC director, Lola Smallwood Cuevas told researchers in 2014, the center started with only a dozen people but they were 12 of the most dedicated workers one could find: [W]e held workshops, a worker's rights hearing, began to build partnerships with community based organizations and we touched over three hundred people in some way. [3]
Within three years, the center had expanded ten fold with a list of 3,000 supporters while engaging over 600 people annually through training, organizing, and advocacy efforts. Today non-profit groups like the LABWC are trying to gain African American workers footholds in industries long closed to them.
Historically, unemployment rates in the African American community have been double that of whites. During the Great Recession, black unemployment peaked at 16.6 percent in April 2010. A recent report from the University of Illinois-Chicago's Great Cities Institute found that during 2014 in L.A. and New York, roughly 30 percent of black men between the ages of 20 and 24 were without work.[4] In addition, UC Berkley's Labor Center reported in 2015 that of those black men and women fully employed in Los Angeles County, 14.3 of the former and 16.7 of the latter worked in low-income positions.[5]
In many ways, Epps epitomizes the work of the LABWC as the efforts of the organization have resulted in an increase in the number of black laborers on the construction of the light rail line by 20 percent.[6] Prior to the LABWC's intervention, the project included no black workers. It's a question of the social networks around the work, Smallwood Cuevas told the Los Angeles Times.[7] How do you crack what has historically been a difficult industry for women, and for black workers in particular. Construction in particular serves as a prime example; despite making up nine percent of L.A. county's population, African Americans account for less than two percent of the industry.[8] LeDaya Epps stands as a living example of the work that women and mothers can do in all industries, and in particular that black women can do in industries traditionally closed to them, Smallwood Cuevas added recently.[9]
Historically the inability to build connections and social networks into various industries in and around Los Angeles, largely due to the effects of discrimination and structural economic change, have defined black labor in L.A. County.
Historically the inability to build connections and social networks into various industries in and around Los Angeles, largely due to the effects of discrimination and structural economic change, have defined black labor in L.A. County. Brief moments of promise such as WWII when government intervention, the work of civil rights organizations and the needs of a mobilizing nation created new employment opportunities previously denied them or during the late 1960s and 70s when unionization finally grew more open to African American workers, would soon be followed by disappointment. While black men and women experienced the ebb and flow of employment differently, each witnessed the door opening slightly only to be closed soon after.
Since the founding of the city of Los Angeles, there's been a deep engagement of African Americans, black people in L.A. to deliver a city free segregation while also providing economic and educational opportunities equally, Smallwood Cueva
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
In early February of this year, approximately 300 workers waited to to learn about pre-apprenticeship training, union building, construction trades apprenticeship programs, and career opportunities. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center (LABWC). 
