UCLA IRLE mourns the loss of Kent Wong

October 13, 2025

Dear Friends,

The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), Labor Studies Department, and Los Angeles labor communities are mourning the loss of Kent Wong, a visionary leader and champion of worker rights and labor education. 

Kent served as the Director of the UCLA Labor Center for over 30 years during a transformative period in which the Los Angeles labor movement became a national model for union revitalization. Kent’s unshakable determination to make UCLA relevant for working people beyond the campus led him to assemble a remarkable team of researchers with deep roots in the community. Kent brought UCLA into the heart of L.A.’s immigrant community when he moved the Labor Center into a former union hall across from MacArthur Park. Years later, the building would be rededicated as the James Lawson, Jr. Worker Justice Center in honor of Kent’s friend and mentor.

Kent also touched the lives of thousands of UCLA undergraduate students through his teaching in Labor Studies. For 20 years, he co-taught the popular course Nonviolence and Social Movements with Rev. Lawson, and each fall for many years, Kent taught our first-year introductory course with 300 students. In the early 2000s, he helped create the undergraduate minor in Labor and Workplace Studies, and this year, his vision and leadership helped establish the very first Department of Labor Studies. Kent was a particularly passionate advocate for undocumented students, especially through the Opportunity for All campaign to open up university employment to all students regardless of immigration status. We are receiving messages of love and respect from many of Kent’s former students who convey how he inspired them to live life fully and make positive change in the world. 

Kent’s impact in the field of labor studies, immigrant rights, and social justice can be seen in his extensive publication record, which includes over 15 books and more than 25 articles. Three of these books are the result of collaborations with students,: Underground Undergrads (2008), Undocumented and Unafraid (2012), and Dreams Deported (2016). Most recently, he co-authored Revolutionary Nonviolence, published by UC Press in 2021, Asian Americans Rising: APALA’s Struggle to Transform the US Labor Movement (2021), and Mike Garcia and the Justice for Janitors Movement (2021). 

At the same time, Kent was deeply engaged in the progressive labor movement of Los Angeles. In a 2020 interview, he recalled that in the 1980s he was part of a group of young progressives who took jobs in organized labor because they “saw that unions represented the best hope for the future of organizing workers and fighting for social justice and challenging corporate domination within our society.” He was a true internationalist who helped build connections and solidarity between labor movements and students from China and Mexico to Vietnam and Germany. His passionate commitment to building solidarity across difference and geography was also reflected in his transformational work as the founding National President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). 

Kent joined UCLA in 1991, but he never lost his deep commitment to building a strong union movement. Throughout the 1990s, he was a key partner for leaders like María Elena Durazo at UNITE HERE Local 11, Miguel Contreras at the County Federation of Labor, and Mike Garcia at Justice for Janitors/SEIU, who were changing the image of labor leadership. He was a leader in the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the California Teachers Federation, and remained an active partner with the County Federation of Labor as it confronted unprecedented challenges to the rights of organized workers. Just this August, he led a massive nonviolence training with over a thousand participants, preparing the community to defend itself.

Kent Wong was one of a kind. A tenacious advocate for the most vulnerable. A creative strategist who put thought into action. An inspiring teacher and mentor to so many. His legacy lives on through his family and through the work of the thousands of students, organizers, rank-and-file workers, and labor leaders he inspired with his impassioned teaching, mentorship, and lifelong dedication to social justice in our city, country, and across the globe. 

With grief and solidarity,

Toby Higbie
IRLE Director 

Jennifer Chun
Interim Chair, Labor Studies (2025-26)

Chris Zepeda-Millan
Chair, Labor Studies (2022-25)