Global University Rankings
The European University Association (EUA) recently released a report they’d commissioned entitled Global University Rankings and Their Impact. The report was written by Andrejs Rauhvargers. According to the EAU, one…
unions
SFPIRG: We stand in solidarity with CUPE 3338 and oppose the “reprehensible” recommendation to evict SFPIRG
The following is a quote from SFPIRG’s announcement to students, members, and supporters, posted on its website at www.sfpirg.ca. It is republished on PoliticsRespun.org in solidarity and to spread the…
SFSS CUPE 3338 Lockout “either ignorance or malicious denigration of their vital work”: SFU student
The following open letter to the SFU community was written by SFU student Emma Noonan, originally titled “In Support of a Livable World” and originally published here. It is republished…
We are “refusing to cross picket lines”: Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union and the SFSS CUPE Lockout
This open letter was originally written by Chelsea Mackay and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Student, published originally here and republished on PoliticsRespun.org with permission. Dear SFSS Board…
Austerity Leads to Suicide Rate Increase
Friday’s Vancouver Sun had a short item that you might have missed, “Suicides up, road deaths down due to recession.” It’s in the bottom corner of page B5: Suicides rates…
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose”; or, how to ideologically re-structure your student society: a beginner’s guide: the SFSS CUPE Lockout
By Joel Blok, originally published here. This summer five years ago, the Board of Directors of the SFSS suspended its office staff, barring them from entering their offices and sending…
Thoughts on a Filibuster
Can I get a “WOW”? Just look at all those women! I couldn’t stop grinning as woman after woman after woman rose and spoke. What happened to all the arrogant…
A no longer radical, now reactionary campus: The SFSS CUPE Lockout
There’s an almost mythical status to the label that Simon Fraser University used to promote itself in 2005 during its 40th anniversary celebrations: the university was a “radical campus.” The…
Arbitrate This!
Does anyone else find it odd that a free-market-worshipping government can happily leap into the fray to micro-manage a labour market outcome (deciding, for example, that postal workers must get…
The NDP and “Big Labour”
Rob Silver, a sharp guy I first met through university debate, has written a rather disappointing piece entitled, “Would NDP be neutral were it in power during a labour dispute?”…
Unions and Inequality
An important paper by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld which is forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology finds that the decline in private sector union density in the…
This Is Where We Are Heading
Slavery isn't just a historical oddity anymore. Companies are taking advantage of a poor job market to squeeze free labor out of our children. These companies are who the Conservatives…
A Message to Every Alberta Liberal: End the Writing off of People
I was reading one comment made over on Calgarygrit’s blog made by a fellow by the name of “Frank” I felt this sinking, sickening feeling. Every single time I hear…
Did the NDP fall into a trap?
I suppose the doyens of public opinion research will tell us the answers soon enough, but I'm wondering if, as Bob Rae claims, the NDP fell into a Tory-set trap…
The Canada Post Filibuster Liveblog
Will the resolution to the Canada Post lockout come before your credit card bill that’s stuck in the mail? Will the Conservatives try to make Jack Layton cry by yelling…
The Velvet Glove Comes Off Harper Government’s Labour Relations Agenda
Even though labour relations is largely a provincial responsibility in Canada, we were worried about what would happen in this field under a Harper majority. And it didn’t take long…
The Canada Post lockout busting legislation explained
It all makes perfect sense to me now. At first I thought it strange that the Tory government was ordering its wholly-owned crown corporation and its Tory government-appointed president to…
Conservative back to work legislastion breaks the law and could result in lasting consequences
To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth: On back to work legislation. Whoa, deja vu.Excerpts:It's worth noting that even lawyers aren't evading it as much as they used to.…
On back to work legislation. Whoa, deja vu.
So, another conservative (note the small "c") government, another round of back to work legislation. Canada violates its international obligations yet again, and is again grouped with such shining lights…
Rights versus the economy
In uniondom we talk a lot about the 'right to free collective bargaining'. I expect most of us realize the meaning of that phrase is lost on most people in…