HARRISBURG, PA (June 11, 2010) - At its Annual Awards Dinner Thursday evening, the Keystone Research Center honored U.S. Steelworkers president Leo W. Gerard, Pennsylvania Labor and Industry Secretary Sandi Vito, and a group of Penn State students that took on sweatshops.
 
"Our awardees this year truly reflect the hard work taking place on college campuses, in the labor movement, and in government to make life better for workers and their families," said Stephen Herzenberg, Ph.D., the Executive Director of KRC. "We congratulate and thank our honorees for their dedication and contributions."
 
President Gerard delivered the keynote address at the Awards Dinner and received the Sol Hoffman Award, in recognition of his service to Keystone Research Center as well as labor movement leadership. The United Steelworkers is the largest and most diverse industrial union in North America. Under Gerard's direction, the 850,000-member USW has heightened its focus on reversing the alarming decline of U.S. manufacturing.
 
In response to the regional and global strategies of the USW's multinational employers, Gerard has championed strategic alliances with unions throughout the world. In 2008, the USW joined with Unite, the largest union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, to create Workers Uniting, the very first global union.
 
The son of a union miner, Gerard started working at Inco's nickel smelter in his hometown of Sudbury, Ontario at age 18. Inspired by a lifelong commitment to economic and social justice, Gerard rose through the ranks to become the USW's seventh International President. Gerard also serves on the AFL-CIO's Executive Committee and he chairs the AFL-CIO's Public Policy Committee.
 
Gerard is a member of the U.S. National Commission on Energy Policy and is a founding board member of the Apollo Alliance, a non-profit public policy initiative for creating good jobs in pursuit of energy independence. He is also co-chairman of the board of the Blue Green Alliance, a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy.
 
Sandi Vito serves as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. She received the Keystone Award, presented to an elected or appointed Pennsylvania official whose public career has helped to build a more prosperous and equitable Pennsylvania. Secretary Vito is only the third person ever to receive this award, the first two being Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. and former State Senator Allen Kukovich. Under Vito's leadership, the Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry has successfully managed critical workforce development, vocational rehabilitation, and workers' compensation programs as well as meeting its numerous enforcement and regulatory responsibilities. Recently, Vito directed efforts that helped thousands of unemployed Pennsylvanians receive a seven-week extension of unemployment compensation benefits.
 
Prior to her appointment as secretary, Vito served as Deputy Secretary for Workforce Development. In that position, working closely with Keystone Research Center, Secretary Vito helped devise Job Ready PA. This comprehensive reform of state workforce programs boosted economic growth by linking state-funded training opportunities with in-demand high-skill, high-wage jobs in critical Pennsylvania industries.
 
In recognition of Vito's achievement in expanding career employment opportunities while meeting businesses' workforce needs, the National Network of Sector Partners awarded her the Trailblazer Award for industry-led workforce development efforts. Her accomplishments were also recognized with the first Workforce Development Leadership Award from Pennsylvania Partners, Pennsylvania's workforce advocacy organization. Recently, Vito was honored by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies with the 2009 Eagle Award for her contributions to workforce development and related services and her efforts to serve employers and workers.
 
Keystone took the unusual step this year of giving its Susan Eaton Award to Penn State United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). (The Eaton Award recognizes those whose contribution to research or working people expresses the same moral constancy and practical idealism exemplified by Susan Eaton, the late advocate for working women and Harvard professor who wrote the second report ever issued by Keystone Research Center, the nationally influential Promoting Quality Care and Quality Jobs in Pennsylvania's Nursing Homes.) The Penn State USAS students have worked tirelessly to raise awareness among the Penn State community about unfair labor practices and sweatshop conditions.
 
The group has worked for over five years to get the University administration to ensure that PSU apparel was not made in sweatshops. After arresting more than 30 student activists in 2008 for a peaceful sit-in, the University in the fall of 2009 severed its ties to Russell Athletic Co., a large apparel manufacturer that had fired a workforce in Honduras which had organized to protest poor conditions. In response to its loss of business at Penn State and other colleges and Universities across the country with Students Against Sweatshops groups, Russell Athletics reopened its plant, rehired the fired employees, and recognized a union.