PEF’s magazine, public relations efforts earn national recognitions

PEF’s advertising campaigns and The Communicator were deemed among the very best labor union communications in the country produced last year.

That’s the verdict of judges in two national labor journalism competitions.

In November, the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) presented PEF with three first-place honors at its annual awards event, held this year in Washington.

And in July, PEF came in for more honors at the annual two-day conference of the American Federation of Teachers Communications Network (AFTCN) in Boston.

ILCA awards
The union’s Go Public TV ad campaign garnered a first prize from the ILCA for its series of spoofs on a “Fat Cat” state contractor that highlight how the state overspends when it hands out work to the private sector that could be done better and for less cost by public employees.

The campaign was produced by PEF Staff Director Stephen Chamberlain and Public Relations Director Darcy Wells in conjunction with Golden Lamb Productions.

The Communicator won the ILCA’s top honors for “General Excellence” among local union publications with a circulation of 20,000 or more.

And the ILCA also gave first place to a photo of PEF member Debra Hunt, taken by PEF Executive Board member Ken Dischel, which appeared in the April 2005 issue of The Communicator. The photo shows Hunt, a civil engineer 1 for the state Transportation Department, inspecting steel reinforcement for paving of the Whitestone Expressway in Queens.

AFTCN awards
PEF received five awards in the AFTCN labor-journalism competition for work done from mid-2005 to mid-2006.

Three of these awards went to The Communicator and two were for public relations. These included three 2nd-place awards for Best Feature Story, Best Editorial and Best Layout/Graphics for The Communicator, and a 2nd-place award for a PR campaign and 3rd place for a newspaper ad.

The President’s Message from Roger Benson, “Political influence is earned,” which appeared in the magazine’s April 2005 issue took 2nd place in the Best Editorial category.

An article about a retired PEF member who helped return World War II mementoes to the survivors of Japanese killed in the war received 2nd place from AFTCN judges in the Best Feature Story competition. The story was written by PEF reporter/writer Deborah A. Miles and appeared in the May 2005 issue of The Communicator.

The Fat Cat theme on the cover of that May issue earned 2nd place honors for Best Layout/Graphics. The cover was designed by PEF graphic artist Mario Bruni.

The AFTCN also gave 2nd place to PEF’s Stop Workplace Violence public relations campaign video and a 3rd-place award to a PEF newspaper ad opposing budget cuts for the state Office of Children and Family Services that ran in February 2005.
 

The Communicator Dec.06/Jan.07

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Go Public: Facts vs. myths
DOT  hires more engineers...
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PEF pr earns national awards

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Clarification: A photo caption in the November issue of The Communicator should have said PEF Vice President Pat Baker and Regional Coordinators Dee Dodson, Vernetta Chesimard and Jemma Marie-Hanson coordinated the PEF Sept. 11 memorial service in New York City.