Labor Tribune wins 5 national press awards

The Labor Tribune continued its winning streak for professional labor journalism by winning five national labor journalism awards – two first places and three second places – in the annual labor media awards contest sponsored by the International Labor Press Association (ILCA) for work in 2014.

Last year, the Labor Tribune won 12 ILCA awards and has been a consistent winner every year, “Attesting to the quality of our efforts to present our readers with the best possible newspaper dealing with news that impacts their lives,” said Editor Tim Rowden.

Winning for work in 2014 in the category of Central Body publications:

• FIRST PLACE: Best editorial or column – UFCW Local 88’s Kyle Norris for his personal account of what it meant to work in a right-to-work state titled, “What Right-to-Work Means.”

• FIRST PLACE: Best News – “Fast Food Workers Take It Global,” an all-encompassing story of the fast food workers struggle in St. Louis and around the globe written by Editor Tim Rowden.

• SECOND PLACE: Best Analysis – “RTW Quietly Mutates, Taking Attack On Workers To City, County Councils,” a revealing story how RTW is trying to get local public bodies to pass RTW ordinances in states were they can’t win a state-wide law written by Publisher Ed Finkelstein.

• SECOND PLACE: Best News – “Labor Weights Difficult Questions, How It Can Help in Ferguson,” an analysis of how Labor views what was happening in Ferguson and issues that need Labor’s help for resolution, written by Editor Tim Rowden.

• SECOND PLACE: Best Series – a four-part series on the St. Louis Building Trades BUD (Building Union Diversity) program that is working to successfully recruit, train and place minorities into the unions’ apprenticeship training programs and a full-time job, written by Publisher Ed Finkelstein.

“I echo Tim’s sentiments that we are proud to provide our readers with the best possible labor journalism effectively covering the local, state and national labor scenes with the kind of enthusiasm and originality that our readers have come to expect from us,” Finkelstein said.

The awards will be presented Sept. 24 at the ILCA’s 60th Anniversary Convention in Raleigh, N.C.