Annual Awards Banquet

The UMassD Labor Education Center holds an annual awards banquet each fall, honoring the contributions of national and local labor leaders, as well as elected officials. We are excited to celebrate the resurgence of labor organizing, often led by youth and Black, Indigenous, and people of color organizers. 

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Recipients of the Arnold M. Dubin Memorial Award

Michael S. Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts

Leo J. Purcell, President, Massachusetts Bldg Trades Council, AFL-CIO

Gerry Studds, US Congress, Tenth District

Nicholas Roussos, Manager, New England District Council, ILGWU

Diana Nunes, New England Regional Joint Board, ACTWU

Donald Walker, President, Southeastern Mass University

Dr. Everett Radovsky, ILGWU Union Health Center

Dr. Anna Radovsky, ILGWU Union Health Center

George Ripley, Commissioner of Labor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Arthur R. Osborn, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO

Robert J. Haynes, Secretary Treasurer, Mass AFL-CIO

John Kerry, US Senator

Edward M. Kennedy, US Senator

James S. Braude, Director, Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts

Barney Frank, US Congress

Teresa Heinz, Chairperson, Heinz Family Philanthropies

Joseph Faherty, President, Mass AFL-CIO

The Founders of the UMass Dartmouth Labor Education Center

James P. McGovern, US Congress

William Delahunt, US Congress

Kathleen Casavant, Secretary-Treasurer, Mass AFL-CIO

Joan Menard, State Senator

Mark Montigny, State Senator

Marc Pacheco, State Senator

Ed Clark, Executive Vice-President, UNITE

Stephen F. Lynch, US Congress

John J. Sweeney, Pres. AFL-CIO

Mayor Edward M. Lambert, Jr., Fall River

Therese Murray, President, Mass. State Senate

Scott W Lang, Mayor of New Bedford

Martha Coakley, Attorney General of Mass.

Tim Murray, Lt. Governor of Mass.

Sandy Felder, Field Div. Director, Strategic Campaigns Dept., AFL-CIO

Lawrence Hanley, President, Amalgamated Transit Union

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Patrick J. O'Neill, Executive VP and Director of Organizing, UFCW

Peter Knowlton, General President, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America

Donna Williams, President, Massachusetts Nurses Association

Sean O’Brien, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Reverend William Barber, President, Poor People’s Campaign

Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers

Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO

Recipients of Harry Dunham Memorial Award

Tina Ponte, Local 899, United Auto Workers

Dora Bastarache, Local 361, ILGWU

Edward DeMoura, Local 284, United Electrical Workers

Rod Poineau, Local 277, United Electrical Workers

Roger LaVoie, Local 899, United Auto Workers

Frank Costa, Local 876, Laborers Union

Ida Cabral, Local 178, ILGWU

Len Rose, President, UAW Local 899

Pam Crowell, Taunton Educators Association

Ida Crowninshield, AFSCME

Evelyn Moniz, Local 178, ILGWU

Julie Ouellette, Local 767, Hospital Workers, SEIU

Bert Barao, Local 177, ACTWU

Margaret Lynch, Mary DeCruz, Alvira Araujo, IBT Labor 59

Lee Medeiros, Maria Perreira, Charlotte Sousa, UNITE

Dottie Griffin, Local 767, SEIU

Mary Mahoney, OPEIU Local 6

UE Local 284, JC Rhodes

UNITE Cliftex Strike Committee

UNITE Ideal Bias Committee Members

Wilfred Desnoyer, Local 168, UAW

Doug Simmons, Local 791, UFCW

Steve Seymour, Barnstable Municipal Employee Assoc.

Robert P. Edwards, UFCW, Local 791

Wilma Erchull, UFCW, Local 791

Kathy Medeiros, UFCW Local 328

Darlene Pimental, UNITE, Local 178 

Fernando Garcia, UE Local 223

Kathy Manson, Pres., Plymouth-Bristol Central Labor Council

Gary Pires, Pres., Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1037

Recipients of the Richard M. Fontera Award

Joseph A. Bronstad, President, Local 1895, AFT

James Toatley and Linda Whyte Toatley

Daniel Georgianna, Professor of Economics, UMass Dartmouth

Ralph Fasanella, Artist

The SMU Labor Studies Committee

Philip T. Silvia, Jr., Professor of History, Bridgewater State College

UMOJA

Clyde Barrow, Assoc. Professor of Political Science, UMass Dartmouth

Injured Workers United: Tony Amaral, President; Kathy Furtado, VP, Sandra Leary, Treasurer, Marlene Souza, Director

Glenda Goldberg, BMC Durfee High School

Spinner Publications

Tom Juravich, Labor Singer, Professor UMass Amherst

Martha Leader, Labor Singer

Russ Davis, Director, Heather Gonzalez, Organizer, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

Women's Institute for Leadership Development

Dr. James Griffith, Professor of Medical Laboratory Science, UMass Dartmouth

Coalition for Social Justice 

Harneen Chernow

Danny Devenny, Mural Artist

Carly Simon, Singer

Third Eye Unlimited

New Bedford Community Economic Development Center

Jerry Fishbein, Local 2020, SEIU

Suzanne Bump, Sec. of Labor and Workforce Development

Dave Wallace, Director, Mass Division of Apprentice Training

George Noel, Director, Mass. Dept. of Labor

Jim Snow, Reg. Dir., AFL-CIO Field Dept., Northeast Region

State Reps: David Sullivan, Cleon H. Turner & Marty Walsh

Tess Ewing, Labor Educator and Activist

Diana Bell & Connie Razza, Community Labor United

Natalicia Tracy, Ex Director, Brazilian Immigrant Center, Inc.

The Dora Bastarache On the Line Award

UNITE Local 178 Negotiating Committee at Aberdeen

International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 59 Strike Comm. UPS

United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 791 Strike Comm. Shaw's

Francoeur Family, Dartmouth, UPS Strike Site Supporters

Maria Chesky, SEIU Local 767

Eleonara Vieira, SEIU Local 509

Organizing Committee Crawford House, Fall River, Local 1199, SEIU

Evelyn Moniz, Local 178, UNITE

Calvin Klein Warehouse Workers, UNITE

Communications Workers of America, Local 1051

United Steelworkers of America, Local 1357

New Bedford DSS Workers SEIU Local 509, community and labor activists who responded to the injustices of the Bianco Raid

Alda Melo, 1199 SEIU 

Chris Bianchi, Edwin Rivera & Eileen Chumack

Centro Comunitario de Trabejadores

George Ripley Ill Memorial Award

Patrick Lee, VP, Trinity Financial

Attorney Scott Lang, Former Mayor of New Bedford

Jon Mitchell, Mayor of New Bedford

Matthew Morrissey, Past Ex. Dir, New Bedford Economic Dev. Council

Richard Sullivan, Jr., Sec, Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs

Bill White, Senior Dir of Offshore Wind, Mass Clean Energy Center

Jocelyn B. Jones, Mass. Asst. Attorney General

Doug Nelson, Former Business Manager, IBEW 223

David Fenton, Int. Rep., IBEW and former Business Manager, IBEW 223

Deb Pimental, Exec. Director, Coalition for Social Justice