By April Rubio, Communications Coordinator for the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. A shortened version of this article was originally printed in The Dispatcher, December 2024.
On Sunday, November 10, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington hosted its annual awards banquet in Seattle. Drawing more than 400 supporters - the highest attendance in the event’s thirty-two-year history - the celebration recognized student scholarship recipients and members of the ILWU and local labor communities. The event’s size was a reflection of the Center’s recent growth, a part of the resurgence of the labor movement on college campuses and nationwide.
The Harry Bridges Center, the only program in the Washington state public university system devoted to workers’ rights, was founded in 1992 in honor of the ILWU’s legendary founding president. Through a grassroots campaign, one thousand ILWU members and pensioners each donated $1,000 to establish an endowed Harry Bridges Chair in Labor Studies, a prestigious position held by a UW professor. Since that time, the Bridges Center has grown immensely. Hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students participate each year in labor courses, receiving scholarships and research grants, and acquiring valuable skills in the labor movement through internships.
The current Harry Bridges Chair is Professor Moon-Ho Jung, an acclaimed historian of labor and American empire. Professor Jung opened the awards celebration with a sober reflection on the recent U.S. election and invited attendees to recognize the strength and determination of the activists and community members gathered in the room. The speech continued a theme of Jung’s work as Bridges Chair. This past January, he organized a conference titled “Reckoning with the Black Radical Tradition” in honor of visionary intellectual and astute organizer Jack O’Dell, who helped shape the course of the Black freedom movement. The conference included a panel on Black workers and the ILWU featuring ILWU Local 10 pensioner Clarence Thomas and ILWU Local 52 member Gabriel Prawl.
Much of the evening was devoted to recognizing student scholarship recipients. Since 1992, gifts from current and retired members of the ILWU have created these awards. The Martin and Anne Jugum Scholarship, created in 1997, honors the late ILWU Local 19 leader Martin "Jug" Jugum and his wife, Anne, and their dedication to the labor movement. Four undergraduate students were the recipients of the award this year: Stephanie Herrera, a nursing student organizing for accessible health justice with agricultural workers; Sofia Torres, a Political Science and History student focused on international solidarity in labor and anti-imperialism; Tristan Jafari, a Biochemistry student and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) advocating for social justice and labor policies promoting health equity; and Alyssa Siron, a Community, Environment, and Planning student with firsthand union organizing experience as a Starbucks organizer and a passion for community building with Filipinx workers.
The Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes Scholarship honors two inspiring Seattle labor leaders who fought for union democracy alongside Filipino cannery workers in ILWU Local 37 (now a part of the Inlandboatmen’s Union) and organized in solidarity with resistance to the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. The scholarship was established thanks to the efforts of the ILWU’s Marine Division, the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, and Region 37. This year’s scholarship recipient was Inhauck Choi, an incoming Human-Centered Design and engineering graduate student. Choi specializes in designing technology that cultivates equity, accessibility, and opportunity. Another award, the Gundlach Scholarship, was created in honor of siblings Jean Gundlach, a ILWU secretary and labor activist, and Ralph Gundlach, a former UW Professor. This award was presented to Runjie Wang, a graduate student in the Cinema and Media Studies program, whose primary interest in research focuses on automation technology in the longshore industry in the Pacific Northwest.
The Frank Jenkins Jr. Fellowship honors the legacy of Frank Jenkins Jr., a leader in ILWU Local 19, a lifelong civil rights and union rights activist, and one of Seattle's first Black and Filipino longshoremen leaders. Two graduate students were the recipients of this award. Eulalie Mathieu, a dedicated Preservation Specialist at the Labor Archives of Washington and graduate student pursuing her master’s in Library and Information Science; and Jordan F.S., a History graduate student with a lifelong dedication to labor organizing who is studying fisheries management in maritime labor. The Kennedy Drayton Scholarship 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. This scholarship was awarded to Maia Cruz, an undergraduate student in Anthropology and Spanish. Cruz is committed to leadership and representation of Latinx communities, studying their cultural dynamics and labor-related struggles.
Research grants and awards for Best Papers were presented to UW students and faculty who explored various labor issues, including Parental Leave and equity among American Indian and Alaska Native working mothers, the health impacts of agricultural work, forced labor, reducing clothing consumption and managing textile waste, multiracial labor organizing, labor and resistance through olive cultivation in Palestine, and a graphic novel portraying the history of Asian Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Maya Cruz, a former Research Assistant and now a full-time Researcher for the Center, spoke about the latest projects the research team has worked on this year. This includes the "State of the Student Worker," a study scheduled for release in January 2025, focusing on student workers’ perspectives and experiences at the university and beyond.
Several ILWU members were honored at the banquet. Retiring IBU National Secretary-Treasurer Terri Mast was celebrated for her lifelong dedication to the labor movement. Her honors included a special surprise video message from William Adams, ILWU president emeritus. “I have known you for many years, Terri, as a mother, a grandmother, and for your tireless work in Seattle, the Filipino community, and politics. You were always that steady hand that people could always go to,” Adams said, “and I want to congratulate you on your retirement, thank you for your years of service.” Mast has been fundamental to the Bridges Center Visiting Committee and the continued success of the programs and scholarships provided throughout the year.
The Center also recognized ILWU Local 23 longshoreman Zack Pattin with the Distinguished Labor Studies Alumni Award and the Distinguished Supporter Award. In the past, these awards were often presented separately to individuals who helped establish the Harry Bridges Center and to former students who worked to advance the labor movement. Pattin, an active Bridges Center Visiting Committee member, a UW Tacoma labor studies graduate, and a well-known and respected organizer within Local 23, received both awards this year. His award was introduced by Mike Jagielski, a Local 23 pensioner and President of the Pacific Coast Pensioners Association, who described Pattin’s efforts to establish Local 23’s Young Workers Committee.
Also recognized at the banquet were retiring Washington state Senator Karen Keiser, a strong advocate for the Labor Center in the state’s legislature, and four students from the Western Academic Workers United (WAWU) union, Chris Reid, Lexy Aydelotte, Gabe Wong, and Jules Robichaux. The youngest union in the state by average member age, WAWU represents student employees at Western Washington University. They shared the highlights of their first strike, which led to a contract including job protections, increased healthcare coverage, and tuition assistance. “This year, my union went on strike for our first contract, and we won. Our victory gave 1,200 young workers at Western an invaluable lesson: if we want to see real change, we do it through worker organizing and direct action,” said Lexy Aydelotte, WAWU President.
Also celebrating an historic contract win was the keynote speaker of the evening, Jon Holden, President of the International Association of Machinists, District Lodge 751. This fall, Holden led 33,000 machinists through a significant seven-week strike at the Boeing Company, where members voted to ratify their new contract only six days before the banquet. “We were very successful; we achieved the highest wage increases that we [have] ever negotiated, decreased healthcare costs, improved retirement funds, and obtained critical job security language to protect our members and the communities where we live,” said Holden. “The one thing we do well is that the IAM sticks together.”
The evening closed out with songs from Vance Lelli, newly retired President of the Pierce County Central Labor Council and a member of ILWU Local 23, along with ILWU Local 19 member Leith Kahl. Together they played “Solidarity Forever” on guitar and banjo, and the audience joined in to sing along. The timeless song was a fitting end to an inspiring evening that saw attendees recommit to the continued growth of the labor movement, in higher education and beyond through the scholarships, internships, classes and research of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.