Canada

With no job security and low pay in one of the most expensive cities in North America, hundreds of employees at a world-class university are struggling to simply pay their bills. This article is only available to subscribers. If…

The more than 2,600 survey respondents challenged the institutional line that most low-paid, short-term and part-time teachers love the flexibility of their contract employment. Instead they have shed a gloomy light on exactly what it means…

Ontario passed Bill 148 — the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act — in November 2017. The labor legislation includes a range of changes such as an increased minimum wage and expanded personal emergency leave. It also aims to ensure pay…

by Andrew Robinson Recently, I had a perfectly reasonable request from a student who wanted to review an exam from last term. I was unable to comply with this request because to do so would be to give my employer more of my time for free.…

by Becky Rynor Graduates themselves are often unsure of where to look for opportunities outside academe. Valerie Walker admits it wasn’t so long ago that she was “that grad student” wondering what the heck she was going to do if she didn’t…

There are a mere 40,800 college faculty in Canada, and 50-60 percent of them work off the tenure-track. According to a piece published in the Calgary Herald, the overuse of scads of perma-temp faculty in Canada is "coming to a boil." Why?…

January was a little scary...ok...a lot scary. We watched, more than slightly terrified, as sales dropped and dropped and, well, you get the picture. February, normally a slow month for sales of books, subscriptions and job postings, was a…

Last Friday, we added an absolutely wonderful podcast interview with Smokey Thomas, President of OPSEU. In the 20 minute interview, Thomas talks at length about the union's drive to organize all of the part-time faculty in Ontario, Canada.…

Untitled Documentby P.D. Lesko Just like the lyric from the “West Side Story” song, it’s “alarming how charming” Smokey Thomas is. He has a strong Canadian accent, speaks rapidly and with a folksy warmth. Thomas laughs easily, and doesn’t…

Untitled Documentby P.D. Lesko Just like the lyric from the “West Side Story” song, it’s “alarming how charming” Smokey Thomas is. He has a strong Canadian accent, speaks rapidly and with a folksy warmth. Thomas laughs easily, and doesn’t…