Labor Studies at the University of Washington provides a unique place for students to learn about their rights and power as workers. After graduation, many of our students go on to advocate for labor rights in their own workplaces and as the staff and leaders of unions and other worker organizations. Each year, the Harry Bridges Center recognizes an exceptional former student who is making a difference for working people with the Distinguished Labor Studies Alumni Award.
In 2025, we honor Corina Yballa, Labor Studies class of 2018 and Political Director of MLK Labor, AFL-CIO. Yballa is a familiar face in the Seattle labor movement. At MLK Labor, she coordinates and advances the collective political agenda for over 150 unions and 220,000 workers. Beyond her day job, she is a longstanding Executive Board member of her own union, OPEIU Local 8, and serves on the Advisory Commission of the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards. Lastly, as Treasurer of the Washington Young Emerging Labor Leaders (WA YELL), Yballa also serves as a Constituency Group Vice President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
As a high school student working a denigrating job in the service industry, Yballa learned early on the importance of safe and healthy working conditions. It was not until attending the University of Washington, however, that she found the language and organizational framework for advancing worker power. During her first quarter at the UW, Yballa attended a meeting of the student organization United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). There she learned about harmful conditions in the overseas garment factories of Nike, a major UW apparel supplier, and the USAS campaign to pressure universities and the company to allow workers’ rights monitoring at the company.
Joining the campaign, Yballa received a crash course in labor organizing and the power of student and worker power. “USAS laid out the strategy to try and pressure the universities from the student movement, on one side, and pressuring the factories on the other from the workers' movement,” Yballa recalls. “I thought, ‘This is super scary, and ambitious, but it seems like we have all the tools.’” After two years of pickets and protests at the UW and across the country, Nike relented. “It was pretty incredible to have that win,” she explains. “It solidified my understanding of everything the labor movement could do for people in their lives.” In addition to the Nike campaign, Yballa learned the value of local labor solidarity, organizing student support for university workers, including a group of unionized laundry workers who were laid off by UW and replaced by nonunion contractors.
In the classroom, Yballa supplemented her student organizing with Labor Studies in the classroom. Through “Introduction to Labor Studies,” Yballa was exposed to a range of guest speakers from the local labor movement. She learned about international labor movements, meanwhile, in a class on anti-colonialism in Philippine history taught by UW Professor Vicente Rafael, and a class on Korean history taught by Professor Hwasook Nam. “The ability to hear from folks working in organized labor was always a highlight for me,” she says, “because it connected this really expansive, centuries-old movement to organizing today.”
Yballa graduated from the UW with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies and a Minor in Labor Studies in 2018. Soon after, she had her first direct experience in political organizing as Field Director for the Seattle city council campaign of Shuan Scott (though Scott lost the race, he is now a state representative for Washington’s 43rd district). The Scott campaign also became Yballa’s first union job when the staff organized as a local of the Campaign Workers Guild. From there, she went to work as a Community Organizer with the Statewide Poverty Action Network, where she was first elected to Executive Board of her union, OPEIU Local 8, a position she stills holds today.
At MLK Labor since 2022, Yballa now helps develop and implement the council’s city, county, and statewide political agenda. Her proudest achievement to date is reviving the Washington Young Emerging Labor Leaders (WA YELL) organization, which has recently grown to over 150 members statewide. The group, open to any worker under the age of 35, works to develop members’ leadership skills, educate on labor history, and advance collective resolutions, including a recent effort pushing the national AFL-CIO to take action for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Personally, Yballa adds that she is the loving parent of two pet rats. That fact has put her at odds with some in the labor movement. “I have complicated feelings about Scabby,” she laughs, referring to the Teamster’s infamous and grotesque anti-strikebreaking mascot. “The rat slander!”
From campus to the King county community, Yballa has been a model labor leader, union member, and political advocate. The Bridges Center is honored to count her among our former students, and we are thrilled to honor her with this year’s Distinguished Labor Studies Alumni Award.