Debra E. Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize

dbernhardt

Debra E. Bernhardt (photograph by Jane Latour, 1995)

JOIN US for the 2023 Bernhardt Labor Journalism Forum and Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, November 8th, from 6-7:30pm at NYU’s Tamiment Library, 2nd Floor North Reading Room. 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012

Registration is required. Please RSVP here.

We are pleased to announce that the 2023 prize was awarded to:

Alex Press for “Hollywood Is on Strike Against High-Tech Exploitation,” Jacobin, July 21, 2023.

The event will feature a forum: Labor Faces Artificial Intelligence, featuring Jane Chung (Justice Speaks), Christopher Kyle (Writers Guild) and TBA (News Guild)

The event and the prize honor the vision of the late Debra E. Bernhardt, who worked in so many different realms to share the hidden histories of working people. By sponsoring this award, we hope to inspire more great writing for a general audience about the history of work, workers, and their organizations.

The New York Labor History Association’s Bernhardt prize of $1,000 goes to an article that exemplifies great writing for a general audience and furthers the understanding of the history of working people. The prize and the forum honor the vision of the late Debra E. Bernhardt, who worked in so many different realms to share the hidden histories of working people.  As head of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, she reached out to an astonishing number of people and organizations to document undocumented stories and unrecognized contributions.  She worked closely with NYLHA on the shared commitment to making links between past and present. Debra Bernhardt and Rachel Bernstein’s Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives – A Pictorial History of Working People in New York City, features many of the materials Bernhardt brought to the Wagner Labor Archives.

NYLHA sponsors this award with the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at NYU’s Tamiment Library, and the award is co-sponsored by LaborArts; Metro New York Labor Communications Council; and the NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

Previous winners:

2022    Molly Crabapple for “How the Taxi Workers Won,” The Nation and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Dec. 13 2021.

The October 2022 forum focused on new forms of organizing and featured Tom Robbins (moderator), Joselyn Chuquillanqui (Starbucks worker organizer), Claire Chang (REI worker organizer), Mat Cusick(former Amazon Union organizer); Alexander Bloom spoke about Bernhardt. Recording available here.

2021     Martha Pskowski for “Saving Lives and Going Hungry: NYC Ambulance Workers Demand Higher Pay,” The Nation, April 6, 2021.

The October 2021 virtual forum focused on newsroom organizing and the larger labor movement and featured Nastaran Mohit (NewsGuild) and Edward Ongweso Jr.(VICE); Alexander Bloom spoke about Bernhardt. Recording available here.

2020      Josh Eidelson,  “How the American Worker Got Fleeced,” with data analysis and graphics by Christopher CannonBloomberg Businessweek, July 2, 2020.

             David Unger,  “Which Side Are We On: Can Labor Support #BlackLivesMatter and Police Unions?” New Labor Forum, July 6, 2020.

The 2020 Forum featured labor journalist and author Steven Greenhouse and Culture Workers Education Center founder Natasha Bunten. You can view a video of the event here.

2019     Jaeah Lee for her article “The Real Cost of Working in the House of Mouse,” Topic Magazine (online), September 2018.

2018    Toni Gilpin for her article “A Louisville Union Built Its Strength as Blacks, Whites Took on International Harvester,” in Louisville Weekly, August 30, 2017.

2017    Garret Keizer for his article “Labor’s Schoolhouse – Lessons from the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913,” in Harper’s Magazine, July 2017.

2016    Chloe Kent, for her article “The Women of New York’s Bravest” in Enchantress magazine, May 2016.

2015    David Kameras and Emily Harris for their May 2014 article in the United Mine Workers Journal:  “From Tragedy to Triumph – 100 Years Later, Workers Benefit from Ludlow’s Legacy.”