Prospect highly commended in three TUC comms award categories

Prospect did well in this year’s Trade Union Communication awards, winning “highly commended” certificates in three of the competition’s categories this week.

The awards were presented at an event in Congress House, London, on Wednesday by TUC president Mohammed Taj.

• Communications officer Graham Stewart and photographer Leonora Saunders (photo by Andy Laithwaite) picked up the award for the 2014 Prospect Pioneers calendar, which was highly commended in the “best one-off publication” category. Judges said: “The calender is… packed with interesting information about women in male-dominated workforces and a creative way of promoting diversity.”

• Prospect’s campaign to get members to vote yes in the political fund ballot in March 2013 was highly commended in the “best campaign” category,  and the award picked up by communications section head Marie McGrath. The judges said: “The first union to reballot on its political fund successfully, Prospect has been a trailblazer for other unions going through the same process.”
• Prospect senior graphic designer Simon Crosby collected the award for a  photograph by Highways Agency member Sandy Osborough, who had entered it for a competition in members’ magazine Profile.  It was highly commended in the category of “best photo/illustration”. The judges liked “the dynamism and sense of urgency in the image and the fact that the worker was very much the central focus of the picture”.

The awards were sponsored by Warners, and the judges were campaigner Carys Afoko, Musicians’ Union head of communications Keith Ames, director of End Violence Against Women Coalition Holly Dustin, Corby MP Andy Sawford and Daily Mirror journalist Mark Ellis.