Bee Metro Staff
Published Friday, May 26, 2006
SACRAMENTO -- The Sidney Hillman Foundation this week chose The Bee's series about mistreatment of Latino forest workers for its annual photojournalism award.
The Hillman awards, named for a union leader who founded the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, recognize "a sense of social responsibility among journalists, writers and public figures, especially at a time when news is increasingly entertainment and business driven," according to a statement from the foundation.
"Sometimes their work deals with issues that are difficult, unpopular or unusual," it continues, "but they are stories that need to be told and are told too rarely."
Judges named both photographer Hector Amezcua and reporter Tom Knudson in the award in recognition of the partnership that such intensive work requires.
Amezcua and Knudson spent nine months researching "The Pineros: Men of the Pines," traveling together to national forests in the West and south of the border.
The Chicago Tribune won the newspaper award for its series "Pipeline to Peril" about Asian workers being exploited in Iraq. The magazine award went to Bloomberg Markets for "Big Pharma's Shameful Secret."
The Bee series, which ran Nov. 13-15, and follow-up stories can be viewed at www.sacbee.com/pineros.