Social Service Review announced that the 2026 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize has been awarded to PhD alumna Kess Ballentine, PhD alumnus Christopher Thyberg, PhD student Tess Schleitwiler, PhD student Hollen Tillman, Professor Jeffrey Shook, and Professor Sara Goodkind for their article “What Happens When the Fight for $15 and a Union Is Won? Understanding Workers’ Perceptions and Implications for Organizing,” which appears in the December 2025 issue. The prize pays tribute to Professor Breul’s career as an educator, administrator, and editor of the Social Service Review (SSR) while on the faculty of the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. The Breul Prize is awarded annually for article judged by the editor in chief, after seeking input from the editorial and external review boards, to be the best published in SSR in the preceding year.
What does it take to foster real union engagement among low-income workers? Ballentine and colleagues’ article uses longitudinal qualitative data collected among low-wage workers over 3 years to examine how unions do—and do not—positively affect their lives. They find a clear threshold: those whose wages rose to $19 per hour or higher reported greater financial security and more engagement with the union. Those whose wages fell below that mark, however, entered a disengagement cycle, demonstrating more distrust of both the union and other workers.
SSR editorial and external review board members praised the design and conceptualization of the study, noting it was theoretically well-supported with findings solidly grounded in the data. They saw the article as advancing both practice and scholarship, making a clear contribution in an underexamined area. Board members concluded the findings would be important for organizing in health care as well as the revitalization of the labor movement.
Kess Ballentine is an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University. Christopher Thyberg is an assistant professor at Augsburg University. Tess Schleitwiler and Hollen Tillman are PhD candidates at University of Pittsburgh. Jeffrey Shook is a professor at University of Pittsburgh. Sara Goodkind holds the Hallen Endowed Chair in Community Health and Social Justice at University of Pittsburgh.