"We were organized to do a job for working people. We were organized to fight for unity and understanding. We were organized to try to bring people together so that they can struggle together, without any distinctions of race, creed, color or religious or political faith."

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$250 is awarded each year for the best undergraduate and graduate student papers written on a labor-related topic.

Students may submit their own papers, or faculty members may nominate outstanding papers they have read during the course of the year.

To submit or nominate a paper, click here.

"A World Apart": Union Member Residence Patterns and Political Preferences

Amanda Clayton, Department of Political Science

Examining the ILWU, Teamsters and Maritime Union of Australia, Clayton shows that locals have often been able to achieve a higher degree of unity and a militant political culture when their members live in the same neighborhoods. The paper examines the history and residence patterns of select locals from the three unions and gives in-depth data on these 'occupational communities.'

Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, 2012-2013

Accumulating Disadvantage: The Growth in the Black-White Wage Gap Among Women

Raine Dozier, Department of Sociology

Over the past two decades, regardless of the economic climate, wage gaps between black and white women have doubled. Black women suffered most in the chilly economic climate of the 1980s and benefited least during the economic expansion of the 1990s. Raine Dozier examines these trends using the sociological research methods of decomposition and relative distribution.

Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, 2006-2007

Policy by Contract:
Social pacts in Australia and New Zealand

John S. Ahlquist, Department of Political Science

Between 1983 and 1996, Labor governments came to power in both New Zealand and Australia. In Australia, organized labor strengthened its economic and political power, signing a formal pact with the government. Labor fared worse in New Zealand as the government pursued radical deregulation. Speaking with policy makers in both countries and drawing on theories of contracts and social pacts, John Ahlquist explains the different experiences of labor in these two otherwise similar countries.

Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, 2007-2008

Pushed Ashore: Coast Guard Screening on the Seattle Waterfront

Elizabeth Poole

In 1951, the United States Coast Guard published new guidelines requiring all Seattle dockworkers and merchant seamen to apply for security clearance passes. While the program claimed to be screening labor for Communism in the name of national security, the program was in fact aimed at breaking the strength of waterfront unions. Providing a history of the program through a study of local cases on the Seattle waterfront, Elizabeth Pool recounts how workers responded with campaigns in both the public areana and the courtroom. In addition to the Best Paper in Labor Studies, Poole's paper recieved the UW Library's 2011 Undergraduate Research Award.

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2011-2012

Racial Inequality in Wealth: Do Labor Unions Matter?

Jon Agnone, Department of Sociology

A large disparity of wealth exists between black and Hispanics households and white households in the United States. Jon Agnone explores the effect of union membership on the ability of workers to accumulate wealth, and asks whether the benefits of union jobs help to narrow this racial disparity in wealth.

Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, 2009-2010

'Speak out when others grow silent:' The Messenger,
the IWW and Debates over New Negro Radicalism

George Robertson, History Major

Following World War I, African American labor radicals sought to develop new theories and new practices in the face of increasing racism and political repression. Looking at The Messenger, the era's largest and most influential leftwing black monthly, George Robertson surveys the political debates among African American labor radicals, and studies their relationship with the predominantly white radical labor organization, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2007-2008

State Austerity Measures and the New Challenge to Collective Bargaining: Outcomes of Anti-Union Legislation in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Washington State

Christopher Stockwell, Political Science Major

Stockwell provides a broad look at the current wave of austerity measures and attempts to crush public sector unions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Washington. The paper studies inequality, other socioeconomic factors, union density and the political climate in creating the recent turn toward state-level anti-union legislation.

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2012-2013

'There Were Years of Neglect:' The Ship Scalers Union and Seattle's Racial Progressivism in the 20th Century

Adam Farley

By allying itself with civil rights organizations, using its union hall as a meeting place for activism, and allowing both communists and African Americans to be freely admitted to its ranks, Seattle's Ship Scaler's Union, Local 541 emerged as a progressive voice and effected some of the most significant civil rights reform in the city, both within and outside of the shipyards. Adam Farley's paper, also recipient of the UW Library's 2011 Undergraduate Research Award, tells the story of the union from the mid-1930s until its dissolution in 1986.

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2011-2012

Virtual Soldiers, Affective Laborers: Video Game Designers go to Basic Combat Training

Robertson Allen, Department of Anthropology

Since 2002, the military has released an official video game called America's Army to help with public image and recruitment. The game itself and the working conditions of the workers who designed the game speak to the increasing militarization of American culture and business. Their experiences as civilian contractors working for the military also reflect the shifting boundaries between labor and leisure, virtual and material, and promotion and propaganda. Allen uses interviews and observations of the game development team to examine these trends in the American economy.

Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, 2010-2011

Waterfront Unionism in Seattle and Tacoma, 1887-1958

Nowell Bamberger, Political Science major

Despite sharing economic, geographic and political environments, Local 19 (Seattle) and Local 23 (Tacoma) of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union took different paths in their early history - one radical, the other more conservative. Yet despite their divergent histories, the union locals today appear to be in very similar situations. Nowell Bamberger examines the differences and similarities of the two locals, looking for insights into union democracy and solidarity.

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2005-2006

Why Washington State Doesn't Have an Income Tax: The 1930's Campaign for Tax Reform and Origins of Washington’s Tax System

Nathan Riding

In the 1930s, a movement for tax reform gained significant support in Washington State amidst the Great Depression and an aging tax system that disproportionately targeted farmers. Capitalizing on widespread discontent with economic conditions, the Washington State Grange led the charge for an income tax throughout the 1930s. Faced with staunch opposition from the governor and businesses-people, their efforts were thwarted and Washington established a new tax system that still lacked an income tax. Nathan Riding explores the reasons for the movement's failure and the ramifications for today's recession.

Awarded Best Undergraduate Student Paper, 2010-2011