Source: CWA|SCA Canada

Three academics who documented the growing scourge of unpaid internships are this year’s winners of the Labour Reporting Award sponsored jointly by CWA Canada and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

Martin O’Hanlon, Director of CWA Canada, said Interns Unite! (You have nothing to lose — literally), published in November by the “fiercely independent” Briarpatch magazine, is an example of the quality, public-service journalism that is so sorely lacking in this country.

“This is a well-written, well-researched piece of journalism that tells an important story and exposes an injustice that is bad for society and bad for the economy: the exploitation of interns.

“As the country’s only all-media union, our focus is promoting and protecting quality jobs and quality journalism. That’s why we sponsor this award.”

Enda Brophy, Nicole Cohen and Greig de Peuter, who are collaborating on a research project on labour politics in the creative industries, were announced as the winners of the $1,000 prize at the CAJ’s annual conference held in Ottawa on the weekend.

The rampant growth of unpaid internships is a key issue for CWA Canada and its largest Local, the Canadian Media Guild (CMG), which represents a significant contingent of freelancers in this country. The CMG partnered with ACTRA and Ryerson’s Centre for Labour Management Relations to stage the Will Work for Exposure conference in October 2012 that addressed topics including wage theft, copyright and workers’ rights.

2012.10.29| Unpaid internships: A boon or a bane?

2012.10.24| Internships and the intersection of class struggle and opportunity

There were several CWA Canada members among the recipients of the 15 awards handed out at the CAJ gala. They include:

Glen McGregor (Ottawa Newspaper Guild) of The Ottawa Citizen who, along with Postmedia’s Stephen Maher, shared in the Open Newspaper / Wire Service category for “Dirty election tricks revealed.”

Gil Shochat, Alex Shprinsten, Joseph Loeiro (Canadian Media Guild) of the CBC News Investigative Unit, in the Open Television category for “Fatal Deception.”

Melissa Brousseau (Canadian Media Guild) of CBC North – Maamuitaau, in the Regional Television category for “Breaking the mold.”

Alison Motluk (Canadian Media Guild) of CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition, in the Current Affairs category for “Wanted: Egg donor in good health.”

Jim Bronskill (Canadian Media Guild) of The Canadian Press, in the Scoop category for “Canada’s torture memos.”

Nahlah Ayed, Diane Grant (Canadian Media Guild) of CBC News – The National, won the JHR / CAJ Award for Human Rights Reporting for “Seeking safety.”