Public Employee Press

PEP and DC 37 radio show win 11 awards

The Public Employee Press and DC 37’s “It’s Your City, It’s Our Job” radio show received a total of 11 awards in the 2008 Labor Media Contest of the International Labor Communications Association.

The radio program was honored for a segment on the success of the union’s Health and Security Plan in combating consumer fraud by drug firms. The show was produced and hosted by Rudy Orozco of the DC 37 Communications Dept. and Education Fund Librarian Ken Nash. Nash was also honored for “Voices of Iraqi Workers,” a segment of his WBAI radio show “Building Bridges.”

The ILCA presented the awards, for 2007 publications and broadcasts, to Oroz-co and PEP Editor Bill Schleicher in Washington Nov. 21.

Teamwork wins kudos
The 10 PEP awards included first and second prizes in the cartoon category to Gene Suchma and first for best illustration to Kyle Baker for a computer drawing the contest judges called “powerful!” The illustration accompanied Sr. Associate Editor Gregory N. Heires’s article about the world-renowned Bellevue Hospital team of Psychologists who help torture victimsto recover from their mental anguish.

The judges found Suchma’s February 2007 depiction of George W. Bush sending troops over a cliff in Iraq “gut wrenching” and added, “Bravo that Suchma realizes that cartoons aren’t just humorous.”

PEP Photographer Clarence Elie-Rivera received awards for two shots, one showing the pride on the faces of members who became “New citizens, with a boost from their union,” and another that the judges called “dramatic,” of Local 420 member DeNorval Parks and his son, who overcame homelessness.

Art Director Alyce Archer and Associate Art Director Elroy Dobson were honored in the best publication design competition and Archer received another award for her informational graphic showing that money spent on the Iraq war could fund huge investments in public education, housing and college aid. The visual aspects of PEP’s design “give readers a reason to stop and read,” said the judges.

Associate Editor Diane S. Williams was honored for her coverage of DC 37’s battles to lift residency requirements, Associate Editor Jane LaTour for her series on union members as “Poverty Fighters” and Heires for his “well-documented, tightly written” analysis of the impact of privatization on U.S. armed forces in Iraq.

“PEP consistently ranks among the most honored union newspapers, locally and nationwide, because it is based on the hard work and important achievements of DC 37 members and published through a team effort that also includes staffers whose names don’t appear on awards,” said Schleicher.