The Electrical Worker Online

October 2009

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Locals and Media Department Win 2009 ILCA Awards

Two IBEW local union newspapers and the International Office Media Department were recognized with awards at the International Labor Communication Association Biennial Conference on September 12 in Pittsburgh.

Eric Wolfe, editor of Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245’s Utility Reporter, took home multiple awards as in several previous years. Wolfe won first place awards for coverage of political action, news and analysis. Wolfe’s series "Global Warming, Electric Power and IBEW 1245" won a first-place award for best series of articles. The Utility Reporter was honored with additional first-place awards for best informational graphic and best photo essay.

"Eric Wolfe is a unionist at heart and a journalist second," says Local 1245 Business Manager Tom Dalzell. "He has a great feel for bringing big national issues home to people and showing how things like deregulation and health care reform affect our lives." Dalzell calls Wolfe the "most popular guy in the local" for the respect that comes through in his coverage of dues-paying members and the work that they perform.

IBEW Frontline, the newspaper of Downers Grove, Ill., Local 21, won a first place award in the general excellence category for local newspapers with a circulation of fewer than 20,000. IBEW Frontline editors Tom Hopper, Nancy North and Bob Przybylinski also received a second-place award for their organizing story that focused on an internal campaign to set up a new mobilization structure in the local. They also won a second-place award for best front page.

The IBEW Journal—in its last year of publication—won an award for best informational graphic. Media specialists Len Shindel and Lucas Oswalt received first-place and second-place awards, respectively, for profiles published in the IBEW Journal.

The IBEW Web site received a third-place award and a second-place award for short videos dealing with the 2008 election and labor history.

Mayor Salutes IBEW

A strong supporter of union labor, Bridgeport, Conn., Mayor Bill Fitch, center, stopped by Bridgeport Local 488’s annual summer outing. From left to right, Local 488 Assistant Business Manager Anthony Soter, City of Bridgeport Public Facilities Director and Local 488 member Charlie Carroll, Mayor Fitch, Business Manager Peter Carroll and President Richard Dabrowski.

Ill. Union Coalition Puts Computers in Schools

Back to school day was a little brighter for students in Quincy, Ill., thanks to Union Difference, a six-month-old coalition of building trades and other unions which formed to improve the community and job opportunities for local citizens by promoting union principles.

The coalition donated 10 new computers to the Quincy Board of Education for use in school libraries, says Business Representative Rich Jones of Peoria, Ill., Local 34, one of the participating local unions. In addition, Union Difference donated $4,000 to the Help Fair, a yearly event that distributes school supplies and provides dental checkups and haircuts to students in financial need.

"We’re changing the perception of unions in west central Ill., a region dominated by nonunion employers," says Jones.

Quincy Superintendent of Schools Lonny Lemon says, "We greatly appreciate Union Difference for providing the computers."