Tonight the National Consumers League will honor Steve Kroft, Co-Editor and Correspondent, 60 Minutes and United States Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis with its highest honor, the Trumpeter Award, on Capitol Hill. Each year, NCL’s Trumpeter Awards Dinner and Reception brings together a diverse group of representatives of labor unions, advocates, legislators, organizations, to celebrate the achievements of consumer and worker advocates.
NCL’s first ever Trumpeter recipient was Senator Edward Kennedy, in 1973. Since then, NCL has recognized leaders who are not afraid to speak out for social justice and for the rights of consumers and workers with the Trumpeter. Other past recipients include Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, author Barbara Ehrenreich, former NCL President Linda Golodner, Senator Paul Wellstone, Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, and other esteemed consumer and worker advocates.
In his decades of investigative journalism, Steve Kroft has earned a reputation — and numerous Emmy and Peabody awards — for groundbreaking reporting on an array of pressing issues ranging from credit default swaps to nuclear safety. His forceful reporting, which has attracted worldwide attention and resulted in real changes for consumers, includes profiles of a Madoff whistleblower and a teenage stock manipulator, as well as an undercover investigation on the rolling back of odometers by car wholesalers, which triggered a federal grand jury investigation and five convictions.
Hilda L. Solis was confirmed as Secretary of Labor in February, after representing the 32nd Congressional District in California for eight years. The daughter of a battery recycling plant worker and Teamsters Union organizer in the San Gabriel Valley, as a young child she walked in picket lines with workers seeking improved health care. Throughout her career, Solis has advocated for low-wage workers, women, immigrants’ rights, better access to health care, a livable minimum wage, and strong support for the right to organize.
NCL will also honor Lynn Jimenez, of San Francisco’s KGO Radio, with its Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award, named for NCL’s first general secretary. Jimenez is a journalist dedicated to consumer and small business education. Author of a bilingual consumer education book, ¿Se Habla Dinero? The Everyday Guide to Financial Success, and host of “Your Money,” Jimenez has served the Bay Area since 1990. Before joining KGO, Jimenez helped create the first California statewide Hispanic AIDS Education Telenovela and telephone hotline. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the Associated Press Bill Stout Memorial Award for Enterprise Reporting and the Northern California Radio and Television News Directors’ Association award for a series on privacy.