AFSCME Katrina Feature Wins Labor Communicators’ Top Prize

International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) Media Coordinator Alec Dubro took part in ILCA’s annual meeting at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., and describes some of the top winners among labor communicators.

Jon Melegrito walked off with the top prize, the Max Steinbock Award, awarded during the ILCA Media Awards Luncheon on Friday. Melegrito, a staff writer at AFSCME, spent weeks in the Gulf Coast area after Hurricane Katrina and published “Victimized by Water, Wind & Politicians” in the November/December issue of the AFSCME magazine Public Employee.

An AFL-CIO staff person, examining the display of award-winning labor print media in the lobby, had this to say:  

I can’t believe how far the labor press has come in the last five years. The quality of this stuff is better than many commercial papers and magazines.

The extensive collection of front pages, articles, graphics, photos and cartoons on display in the AFL-CIO lobby was part of a daylong presentation of a panel, trainings, a one-man dramatization of the life of longshore organizer Harry Bridges and the awards luncheon. The last took place under the vast mosaic mural in the Samuel Gompers Room.

As the award listing were flashed on the screen behind the podium, ILCA executive council members Zita Allen from RWDSU and Corrina Christensen from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union called first-place winners to the stage where they received plaques from ILCA President Steve Stallone, communications director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The awards cover print media, best websites, video, audio and podcasts. In all, there were dozens of categories, most broken down by size of publication, by local unions and regional and national unions. Check out a full list of winners here.

At 5 p.m., conferees returned to the Gompers Room for a performance of actor Ian Ruskin’s one-man play about ILWU founder and president Harry Bridges. Ruskin has been performing the play, “From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks,” for several years around the country.

It’s also available as a video, shot by award-winning cinematographer Haskel Wexler, at http://theharrybridgesproject.org/.

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