Sean Irvine, a veteran CTV London broadcast reporter and anchor, has won this year's SONG Labour Journalism Award for his special series on the closing of Ford Motor Company's St. Thomas Assembly Plant.
Irvine's five-part series, which aired in the fall of 2024, tells the story of an Ontario industry and its community from proud plant opening to tearful closing.
Built in 1967 by Ford in tiny Talbotville, south of London, the St. Thomas Assembly Plant was an economic and cultural mainstay in southern Ontario for several generations of workers. The auto giant closed the plant last fall, a victim of globalization and the 2024 economic recession.
"Sean Irvine's work is a stark and moving look inside the rise and fall of a plant that at its height employed over 3,000 autoworkers in southern Ontario," said Paul Morse, president of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union Local 87-M (Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild). "His exemplary reportage shows us the economic fallout suffered by communities when they lose a major employer, and the personal impacts on workers left without a job."
The award recognizes excellence in reporting on labour issues, including corporate labour relations, working conditions, labour law, and employee rights. Last year's recipient was Hamilton Spectator reporter Steve Arnold for his coverage of the steel industry.
CEP Local 87-M has 3,000 members at 35 media outlets across Ontario including CTV, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun and Toronto Star.