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UCLA Students Take Final Exam By Pushing For Workers' Rights.
By Deborah Kong
LOS ANGELES -- Instead of hitting the books and losing sleep during late-night study sessions, senior Valerie Kwok and 21 other students in UCLA Professor Glenn Omatsu's Asian American Social Movements class called dozens of community leaders to coordinate a forum advocating workers' rights for their final exam.
The class met for two-hour sessions twice a week to discuss ways to help workers at the Japanese-owned New Otani Hotel in Little Tokyo form a union.
"If one person walks away from the forum, having learned something and maybe wanting to help the workers in some way, if we can get more people to go out there and say, 'How can I help?' then we've achieved our goal," said Kwok, who is a fifth-year political science major.
This quarter, the class learned about building interethnic alliances, addressing corporate accountability and recognizing the working conditions that many immigrant workers face. These lessons have given the class hands-on experience with organizing and coordinating community support.
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