Award-winning Guild journalism

California Media Workers Guild members dominated the 2009 NorCal Society of Professional Journalists awards at Jillian's in San Francisco Tuesday night, showing once again that the best journalism is produced by Guild members.

Eleven awards were captured by Guild members from the Chronicle, Mercury News and MediaNews papers, including one of the evening's top honors -- the Career Achievement Award, given to longtime Chronicle journalist and Guild activist Susan Sward.

Sward, who left the Chronicle this summer, was an award-winning reporter at the paper for 30 years, during which she covered nearly every beat. She is perhaps best known for her work on the investigative team and as a breaking news reporter. But Susan contributed much more to the Chronicle than her stories, and the SPJ award recognized that.

The judges praised Sward for her work mentoring young journalists, particularly women, and for her role in persuading the Chronicle to adopt policies making it easier for new mothers and fathers to continue to work as journalists while raising families. (The Hearst Corp., taking advantage of the newspaper crisis, has unraveled those family-friendly policies since taking over the Chronicle.)

Sward was gracious in accepting the award, thanking colleague David Perlman, the Chronicle's veteran science writer, and Steve Cook, the paper's former investigative editor.

Other California Media Workers Guild journalists receiving awards include:

-- Charles Piller, Sacramento Bee, economic journalism award, for reporting on who profited from the federal bailout.

-- Sean Webby, San Jose Mercury News, investigative reporting and public service awards, for a year-long series on how San Jose's public drunkenness crackdown disproportionately targeted Latinos.

-- Geoff Link, San Francisco Chronicle copy editor, Unsung Hero award, for his other job -- as editor and publisher of Central City Extra, a monthly newspaper for the often-ignored residents of San Francisco's Tenderloin, Civic Center and Sixth Street neighborhoods.

-- Oakland Tribune staff, breaking news award, for its coverage of the Oscar Grant shooting .

-- Nanette Asimov and Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, explanatory journalism, for a special report tracking the 1995-96 graduates of a kindergarten class in a lower-income neighborhood and school.

-- Meredith May, San Francisco Chronicle, feature writing award, for a story on a Bay Area woman helping to combat the Nepalese practice of bonded servitude of girls.

-- Karen D'Souza, San Jose Mercury News, criticism award, for three theater reviews.

-- Oakland Tribune and Bay Area.com staffs, innovation and entrepreneurship award, for ther presentation of news on multiple platforms.

-- Dai Sugano, San Jose Mercury News, photojournalism, for a photo essay and multimedia project documenting the lives of people left out of most reporting on India's economic boom.

A complete list of award winners can be viewed here.

Congratulations to all the award winners, but especially members of the Media Workers Guild for demonstrating that the Bay Area's best journalism still comes from union journalists, who are better paid and get such things as health insurance, vacations,paid holidays and a say in their workplace.