Over 350 People Attend 37th Annual Labor Day Picnic in Ithaca: List of Awards

Over 350 people attended the Tompkins County Workers Center and the Midstate Council for Occupational Safety and Health (MCOSH) 37th Annual Labor Day Picnic @ Ithaca’s Stewart Park on Monday, September 4th. The Picnic organizers focused on the theme: Immigrant Workers, Past and present. Incredible music was provided by ‘Colleen Kattau and ‘Some Guys’.

MOTHER JONES AWARD: This year’s Mother Jones Award was given to the Advocacy Center Workers of Tompkins County for effectively starting a union in their workplace, supported ongoingly by the Communication Workers of America Local 1111 based out of Elmira.

JOE HILL AWARD: This year’s Joe Hill Award was given to the Ithaca Public Workers Coalition and is comprised of members of the: Ithaca Professional Firefighters Association; the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association; the City of Ithaca Executive Association; the CSEA Department of Public Works Unit; and the CSEA Adminstrative Unit. The Award was given as a result of the tremendous strides made in the direction of workers rights in the running of the City within the past year.

Every year, a highlight is the awards through which the Workers’ Center and MCOSH recognize the best and worst among us.

DOLORES HUERTA AWARD: This year’s Dolores Huerta Award was given to the Jerry Dell (Dryden, NY) Dairy Farm Workers who courageously organized a union in their workplace. This is a right that was only very recently afforded to farm workers in New York four years ago. The union the workers chose to affiliate with is the TAU (Trabajadores Agrícolas Unidos).

A. PHILIP RANDOLPH AWARD: This year’s A. Philip Randolph Award was given to the workers of Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service Workers for effectively starting a union in their workplace, supported ongoingly by the Communication Workers of America Local 1111 based out of Elmira.

CHICO MENDES AWARD: This year’s Chico Mendes Award was given to the Bangs Ambulance Workers United for effectively starting a union in their workplace, supported ongoingly by Civil Service Employees of America (CSEA) Central Region union.

JAZ BRISACK AWARD: This year’s Jaz Brisack Award was given to the Starbucks Workers United in Ithaca for their successful effort to organize all three Ithaca Starbucks, only to see all three stores closed down by Starbucks for the workers intensive union organizing.

FRIEND OF LABOR AWARD: This year’s Friend of Labor Award was given to the Student Organizers of the Starbucks Off Cornell Campus Campaign for their excellent work to get Cornell University to sever its contract with Starbucks across the campus.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Al Davidoff.