The Sidney Hillman Foundation

Sidney's Picks: Venmo contacts reveal "populist" JD Vance enmeshed in an elite web.

Sidney's Picks: JD Vance's Venmo Buddies The Best of the Week's News Trump claims the Republicans are pro-worker, but Project 2025 would devastate labor. (NV Current) Trump’s “populist” VP pick J.D. Vance left his Venmo public, revealing his ties to the elite. (Wired) Russian court convicts WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich on bogus char...

Sidney's Picks: Don't be fooled, Project 2025 is Trump's campaign platform.

Sidney's Picks: Project 2025 is Trump's Real Campaign Platform The Best of the Week's News Project 2025 is Trump’s real campaign platform. (Vanity Fair) Wisconsin judge strikes down parts of the state’s notorious anti-public sector union law. (MJS) Biden administration offers $1.7 billion to boost to electric vehicle manufacturing in the United States. (NYT...

The July Sidney Award goes to The Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones and Reveal for telling the true story behind the broken promise of 40 Acres and a Mule for formerly enslaved people:

Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones and Reveal win July Sidney for ‘40 Acres and a Lie’ Alexia Fernández Campbell, April Simpson, Pratheek Rebala, Jen LaFleur, and Nadia Hamdan win the July Sidney Award for “40 Acres and a Lie,” a multi-media collaboration between The Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones and Reveal. Most people don’t realize that the federal government gave...

Happy Friday, enjoy Sidney's Picks:

Sidney's Picks: Biden Announces New Heat Protection Rules for Workers Biden announces new heat protections for workers, takes climate change deniers to task. (NYT) How the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling sets the stage for dictatorship. (Vox) Reporter finds passion for journalism behind bars, exposes neglectful prison health system. (NYT) “Some folks ...

Happy Friday, enjoy Sidney's Picks!

Sidney's Picks: iHeartMedia Workers Ratify First Union Contract The Best of the Week's News Audio storytellers at the iHeartMedia network vote 99% to ratify their first union contract. (Hollywood Reporter) Why Starbucks and Workers United are on track to reach a contract. (NYT) House “Slow Fashion Caucus” hopes to break our national addiction to disposable c...

Happy Friday, enjoy Sidney's Picks!

Sidney's Picks: Sherrod Brown's Senate Opponent Allegedly Stole Wages The Best of the Week's News Sherrod Brown’s opponent shredded overtime pay records at his car dealership and settled more than a dozen wage theft cases. (MoJo) Southern teachers unionize. (Prospect) Amazon Labor Union (ALU) members vote to join the Teamsters. (Verge) Why is the Supreme Court takin...

Sidney's Picks: CVS Making Tainted Children's Meds, Supreme Court Rules Against NLRB:

Sidney's Picks: Supreme Court Rules Against Labor Board The Best of the Week's News Supreme Court makes it harder for NLRB to reinstate workers fired for organizing. (NYT) Dollar Trees are as common as Starbucks, and the retailer is under pressureto improve its terrible safety record. (VA Center for Investigative Journalism) CVS is making generic drugs f...

The New York Times wins the June Sidney Award for Exposing How Extremist Settlers Took Over Israel:

New York Times wins June Sidney for Exposing How Extremist Settlers Took Over Israel Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times win the June Sidney Award for “Unpunished: How Extremist Settlers Took Over Israel.” Equal parts journalism and history, this deeply reported series addresses an urgent question: “How did a young nation turn so quickly on its own democratic...

Sidney's Picks: New WaPo CEO tried to squelch coverage of this role in a UK phone-hacking scandal.

Sidney's Picks: New WaPo CEO Tried to Squelch Coverage of His Phone-Hacking Scandal The Best of the Week's News The Washington Post’s new CEO tried to squelch coverage of his links to a phone-hacking scandal. (SF Gate, NYT, NPR) Nine witnesses in Trump’s criminal cases have received major benefits from his campaign and businesses, raising fears of witness tampering. (ProPublica...

Sidney's Picks: Child labor at Hyundai, Trump's shattered aura of invincibility, and more!

Sidney's Picks: Labor Department Sues Hyundai Over Child Labor The Best of the Week's News Labor department sues Hyundai to stop child labor in Alabama after 13-year-old allegedly worked a 60-hour week. (WaPo) Biden’s nominations could preserve the Democratic majority on the NLRB whether or not he wins reelection. (Bloomberg) Catholic clergy s*xually abused N...

Sidney's Picks: Disappearing Discipline Records, Tax-Dodging Rideshares, and More

Sidney's Picks: Ride Share Tax-Dodging & Disappearing Police Discipline Records The Best of the Week's News How Uber and Lyft dodge millions in taxes. (Slate) NYPD discipline records keep disappearing from a public database. (ProPublica) Trump helped his employees evade security cameras as they moved classified documents he’d hoarded at Mar-a-Lago, newly unsealed motion alleg...

Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones wins the May Sidney for probing a vanishing tribal police department and a tragic death:

Samantha Michaels wins May Sidney for Probing a Tribal Police Department and A Tragic Death Samantha Michaels of Mother Jones wins the May Sidney Award for “A New Police Force Chased a 17-Year-Old Boy to His Death. Then It Vanished,” a deeply reported feature about a short-lived police force on the Crow reservation in Montana. In late 2020, 17-year-old Braven Glenn was driving to visit...

Sidney's Picks: Tyson pollution, Decades of s*x abuse in the police Explorer program, undisclosed junkets by federal judges including a Trump judge.

Tyson Foods Dumped Tons of Toxic Chemicals; Congrats to Hillman Prize-winners! The Best of the Week's News Federal judges are accepting undisclosed luxury junkets. (NPR) Nail salon workers face reproductive health crisis. (DocumentedNY) Labor Department announces new rule to protect farm workers from wage theft and human trafficking. (Nursery Mgt) Tyson Foods dumped tons of to...

The upcoming Hillman Prizes get a shout-out on Nieman Storyboard!

Journalism awards: Free j-school | Nieman Storyboard Contest winners and finalists demonstrate journalistic standards and purpose, and reflect the times we live in.

Sidney's Picks: VW Victory; FTC Non-Compete Ban and more...

Volkswagen "First Domino to Fall" Volkswagen in Tennessee was the first “domino to fall” says United Auto Workers president Shawn Fein. (Guardian) New FTC ban on non-compete clauses could raise wages by $300 billion dollars. (Nation) Ninety-seven journalists have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, 16 have been wounded, and 4 a...

Congratulations to Aurora Almendral of Type Investigations and Quartz on winning the 2024 SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice for shining a light on the labor trafficking of nurses.

Merchants of Care The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented staffing crisis for hospitals in the United States and Europe. Nurses left the profession in droves, citing stress and burnout, and sparking a shortage that will grow significantly worse. Nearly one-fifth of nurses are planning to leave their jobs by 20...

Congratulations to Philippe Sands on winning the George Barrett Award for Public Interest Law for his work on behalf of those without money or power to secure their basic rights, address the legacies of colonialism, and protect the global environment.

2024 George Barrett Award Recipient Philippe Sands KC is an internationally recognised and respected human rights lawyer and writer. He is Professor of Law at University College London and currently the Samuel and Judith Pisar visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He practices as a Barrister in London at 11 Kings Bench Walk...

Congratulations to Hannah Beckler of Business Insider on winning the 2024 Hillman Prize for Newspaper journalism for her hair-raising exposé of the use of vicious attack dogs against incarcerated people in prison cells.

The Secret Terror Inside U.S. Prisons Hannah Beckler’s stunning, deeply reported series documents prisoner abuse that shocks the conscience, and has led to significant legislative reforms. The reporting began in 2022, when she saw a news story about a lawsuit, filed by a Virginia prisoner, saying he’d been attacked in his prison cel...

Congratulations to Candice Nguyen of NBC Bay Area on winning the 2024 Hillman Prize for Broadcast journalism for “911: Hanging on the Line,” that exposed the collapse of Oakland’s 911 system and held public servants to account.

911: Hanging on the Line Candice Nguyen: Investigative producer and reporter Jeremy Carroll: Photographer and editor Sean Myers: Producer Alex Bozovic: Editor Michael Horn: Photographer In July 2023, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit discovered that Oakland, California, had the longest 911 answering time in the state. Wha...

Congratulations to Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times on winning the 2024 Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis journalism for doggedly championing facts, logic, and common sense on a dazzling array of topics from labor to crime to public health.

Columns by Michael Hiltzik At this moment in time when accurate information is indispensable—for the preservation of public health; for the efforts to create a more vibrant and fair economy; and for the very functioning of our democracy—we are awash in misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. The deceits of 2023 cr...

Congratulations to Josh Eidelson of Bloomberg Businessweek on winning the 2024 Hillman Prize for Magazine journalism for his tireless and impactful coverage of labor like the deplorable working conditions at Dollar General.

The U.S. Workplace Power Struggle For the past couple of years, workers in a range of different industries have been taking remarkable collective action. They are making progress in reversing decades-long anti-labor trends, and forcing reckonings over long-simmering problems with their employers. Josh Eidelson, labor reporter for Bl...

Congratulations to Samual G Freedman on winning the 2024 Book Prize for “Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights,” a compelling portrait of a forgotten hero of the fight for multiracial democracy.

Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights During one sweltering week in July, 1948, the Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia for its national convention. The most pressing and controversial issue facing the delegates was not who to nominate for president—the incumbent Harry Truman, was the presumptive candidate—but whether the Demo...

Announcing the winners of the 2024 Hillman Prizes which celebrate investigative journalism that uncovers hard truths and holds those in power to account. Journalists have a critical role in protecting and strengthening our democracy.

2024 Hillman Prizes Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has honored journalists who pursue investigative reporting and deep storytelling in service of the common good. Recipients exemplify reportorial excellence, storytelling skill, and social justice impact.

Sidney's Picks: Will the UAW Unionize the South Will Red States Jail Librarians?

Sidney's Picks: Will the UAW Unionize the South? Will Red States Jail Librarians? The Best of the Week's News Will the United Auto Workers unionize the South? Republican governors are getting nervous. (Guardian, NYT) Criminalizing homelessness won’t make it go away. (NYT, video) The meat grinder: At least 50,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine in the second year of t...

The NLRB fights back against corporations trying to get them declared unconstitutional:

NLRB Fights Back The National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer stands firm against the big companies challenging her agency as unconstitutional. (Guardian) The Biden administration cancels more than $7 billion worth of student loans. (WaPo) A day laborer’s life in the woods of the Hamptons. (NYT) The economic ...

Congratulations to our April Sidney winner, Alexandria Jacobson:

Raw Story's Alexandria Jacobson wins Sidney Award for investigation into postal crime The prize honors 'outstanding investigative journalism that exposes social and economic injustices'

The April Sidney Award goes to Alexandra Jacobson of Raw Story for exposing a surge of violent thefts from letter carriers:

Alexandria Jacobson wins April Sidney for Shining Light on Epidemic of Violence Against Mail Carriers Alexandria Jacobson of Raw Story wins the March Sidney Award for “Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police,” a deeply reported feature that shines a spotlight on a rising tide of attacks on letter carriers. Veteran letter carrier Khalalisa Norris was robbed...

Sidney's Picks: How the news lost its nerve; Healthcare workers fear the CDC may weaken masking standards:

Sidney's Picks: How the News Lost Its Nerve The Best of the Week's News How the news lost its nerve. (Semafor) In dramatic pro-worker move, president Joe Biden blocks the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel. (Prospect) The right is trying to kill OSHA with a Supreme Court challenge. (Politico) Healthcare workers fear ...

Congratulations to Aaron Derfel of the Montreal Gazette on winning the 2024 Canadian Hillman Prize (Local News) for “Staff haunted by preventable deaths at Lakeshore Hospital ER.”
Congratulations to Aaron Derfel of the Montreal Gazette on winning the 2024 Canadian Hillman Prize (Local News) for “Staff haunted by preventable deaths at Lakeshore Hospital ER.”

Aaron Derfel Health journalist Aaron Derfel painstakingly documents the likely-preventable deaths of six people in a hospital emergency ward. Although his four-part investigation centres on the Lakeshore General Hospital in suburban Montreal, it exposes a chronic problem in the healthcare system across Canada: u...