Published in The Dispatcher in December 2025. 

By April Rubio, Communications Coordinator for the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

On Sunday, November 9, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington hosted its annual Awards Celebration, bringing together the labor community in Seattle and beyond to honor the achievements of faculty, students, and labor activists. Founded in 1992 by members and pensioners of the ILWU in memory of the union’s late president Harry Bridges, the Center has since grown to serve hundreds of faculty and students in the study of labor and working people’s issues through classes, scholarships, internships, and research.

The evening began with a welcome by Moon-Ho Jung, Bridges Center Director, Harry Bridges Endowed Chair, and UW Professor of History. Jung’s remarks were followed by a heartfelt tribute to Kent Wong, former director of the UCLA Labor Center and founding president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), who passed away this October. Former APALA President Ligaya Domingo, former Harry Bridges Chair Michael Honey, and Richard Gurtiza of the Inlandboatmen’s Union Region 37 (retired) each spoke to Wong’s legacy. “The labor movement lost a great labor leader,” said Gurtiza, “but the generation of workers who follow in his shadow will know and understand that Kent’s aspirations, determination, and resolve will continue to be the foundation of a true and mighty labor movement.”

Next, ILWU Vice President Ryan Whitman made an appearance via video message, congratulating the scholarship recipients and acknowledging the work that the Bridges Center is doing. 

“Thank you for your vital contributions to labor research, and for producing new generations of scholar activists dedicated to democratic unionism and uplifting all workers. With increased attacks on unions and threats to academic freedom by the federal government, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies is more essential than ever.” Whitman said. “Establishing the Harry Bridges Chair was a labor of love led by the members and pensioners of the ILWU. While most academic chairs were funded by millionaires and billionaires, the Bridges Chair was financed by working class people to serve the interests of the working class. The Bridges Center is a source of pride and honor for our union. ILWU members and pensioners have continued to support the Center by establishing scholarship funds that honor ILWU leaders.”

Whitman also recognized two of the evening’s scholarship recipients, who are members of ILWU Local 19: Alison Steichen, recipient of the Kennedy-Drayton Scholarship, and Justin Hirsch, awarded the Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship. “Justin and Alison, I want to congratulate you both; you join a proud tradition of dockworkers, scholars, and working class intellectuals who have contributed so much to the history, culture, and traditions of the ILWU.”

The Kennedy-Drayton Scholarship, awarded to Steichen, honors Ian Kennedy and Michele Drayton, both former officials and rank-and-file members of Seattle’s ILWU Local 52, who created this scholarship in 2018 to advance their deeply held commitment to education and organized labor. Steichen, a Seattle dockworker, union member, and student in Comparative History of Ideas, Political Science, and Labor Studies, is studying the human toll of port automation. She is also highlighting the voices and experiences of women through the Women on the Waterfront Oral History Project. This project includes a series of recorded and archived oral history interviews that engage directly with women who have worked on the docks, capturing their firsthand accounts of labor, gender, and solidarity within the ILWU. In addition to Steichen, the Kennedy Drayton Scholarship was also awarded to Emily Gonzalez Garcia, an incoming first-year student in Law, Societies, and Justice; and Rowan Herbst Minino, a budding journalist and Public Interest Communications student. 

The Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship, awarded to Local 19’s Justin Hirsch, honors the legacy of Frank Jenkins Jr., an early leader in Local 19, a lifelong civil rights and union rights activist, and one of Seattle's first Black and Filipino longshoremen. Hirsch, a rank-and-file longshoreman and graduate student in Marine Affairs and International Studies, is researching the impact of labor, immigration, fisheries policy, and ecosystem change on Pacific Coast migrant tuna fishers. He aims to facilitate an understanding of how these policies affect the lived experience of migrant fishers in the North Pacific albacore fishery, identify aspects of the policy landscape that create avenues for exploitation, and make policy prescriptions to improve the lives of migrant fishers.

Additional scholarships honor the memory of past ILWU leaders. The Martin and Anne Jugum Scholarship, established in 1997, honors the late Local 19 leader Martin "Jug" Jugum and his wife, Anne. This year, three undergraduate students received the award: Cyril Jonathan Clement, a Medical Anthropology and Environmental Studies student working to help immigrants navigate the convoluted U.S. healthcare system; Zeke Cohn, a Civil Engineering student and local labor activist; and Nadir Tokombayev, a Bioengineering student developing accessible health technology.

The Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes Scholarship honors two inspiring Filipino labor leaders from Seattle who advocated for union democracy. Working alongside Filipino cannery workers in ILWU Local 37 (now part of the Inlandboatmen’s Union) and supporting resistance to Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship in the Philippines, they were murdered in 1981 by agents of the Marcos regime. This year’s scholarship recipients are: Rachael Benson, a graduate Social Work student committed to social justice and expanding her capacity to address the systemic, interconnected issues that perpetuate injustices through policy advocacy; and Johnny Nguyen, a Nursing Science PhD student dedicated to creating safer working conditions for immigrant workers and small businesses through his studies.

Another award, the Gundlach Scholarship, was created in honor of siblings Jean Gundlach, an ILWU secretary and labor activist, and Ralph Gundlach, a former UW Professor. This award was presented to Gioia Robinson, a PhD student in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, whose passion for labor and social justice issues stems from her experience studying abroad in Polynesia, where she witnessed the effects of French nuclear weapons testing on Tahitian communities. 

In addition to scholarships, research grants were awarded to UW graduate students and faculty who are investigating labor issues. Topics ranged from global perspectives, such as “It Takes A Village: The Human Rights Activism of Mothers Under the Philippine Drug War” and “Assessing Gender-Based Violence and Mental Health Among U.S. Mariners”, to more localized and policy-focused research like “Labor Issues of Chinese Migrant Massage Parlor Workers in King County”.

Each year, the Harry Bridges Center honors working people and the labor movement by awarding two distinguished acknowledgments: the Robert H. Duggan Distinguished Supporter of Labor Studies Award and the Distinguished Labor Studies Alumni Award. Named after labor lawyer and former longshore worker Robert H. Duggan, who championed the creation of the Bridges Center, the Duggan Award was presented by longtime IBU leader and Bridges Center Visiting Committee member, Terri Mast, to Emily Van Bronkhorst. Van Bronkhorst has been a member of the Visiting Committee for over seventeen years and is a lifelong labor organizer involved with LELO, ILWU Local 9, ILWU Region 37, and SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. Shaun Scott, house representative of Washington State Legislative District 43 and a UW alum, presented the Distinguished Alumni Award to Corina Yballa, a 2018 Labor Studies graduate and Political Director of MLK Labor, AFL-CIO.

Throughout the evening, speakers took to the stage to share their experiences as labor leaders in the current times. Carolyn McConnell and Stephanie Hung, two federal workers and union members of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), spoke about organizing federal workers within the current administration. “I joined FUN in January 2025, and that was when I met tonight’s speaker, Stephanie Hung. With Stephanie and other fired-up federal employees here in Seattle, we began our resistance—organizing rallies in the Spring that drew thousands. We even took to the streets and picketed our workplace, the U.S. Federal building downtown in June, to protest ICE having turned our workplace into a place of terror,” McConnell said. “Stephanie Hung is a leader in this resistance, both here in Seattle and nationally as part of the FUN. She is a federal worker and a proud union member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Her work as a public servant helps keep our drinking water safe, and she witnesses firsthand how essential public services are to communities.”

As a longtime organizer and president of SEIU 6, keynote speaker Zenia Javalera rose to leadership by organizing alongside janitors who fight for fair workloads and an end to worker exploitation. “We’re part of the powerful, multi-racial working class. I know that the people in this room already know union jobs change lives, but there is so much more to it,” said Javalera, “There are workers out there who have a spark who are going to fight back, no matter what. Capitalism is not going to reward that, but your union is going to put a spotlight on that. Your union will make sure you know you have a voice and that your power can grow. Your union will invest in that spark, and when we do that… that is when real transformation happens.”

Professor Jung closed out the celebration with some parting words of hope, “…And so with collective creativity, critical knowledge, and a strong labor movement, we can and we will figure out how to advance [those] struggles; through, against, and beyond our
current fascist moment.”