Guardian Blog article on PostDoc Jobs in UK: Academic Jobs are scarce but we're Optimistic??...Really?.

The Reader, visitors and PostDocs who is going to read this Blog article of the guardian must read some of the PostDocs comments, that is the real indication of what is the job trend, not the news as such....Read the comments...

 Young Scientists and their job prospect in UK, though this Guardian News paints a positive picture, when I browsed through the comments made by many PhD holders who are looking for jobs past several months and some of the years, its kind of negative. Not sure about the plights of postdocs looking for jobs in USA, as I left the academy long time ago... it is time someone here in US review the job prospective of newly awarded PhDs or postdocs looking for jobs....might be of use to the graduates who are enrolled in PhD degrees and to those who are continue to do their one to five postdocs?.

Postdoc diaries: academic jobs are scarce but we're optimistic

• By Mel Rohse and Dean D'Souza
• Guardian Professional, Wednesday 18 June 2014 05.17 EDT

For six months, we've followed PhD graduates Mel and Dean in their hunt for a job. The final instalment sees them feeling positive about the future 

Remember childhood? Job-hunting seemed to be so much easier back then. I recall that I didn't even want my first few jobs. One day, my uncle told me that I needed "toughening up". So he gave me a job in construction that was actually more boring (eg mixing cement) than physically demanding.
For my second job, my friend convinced me to apply for work in silver service waiting with him. We learnt some valuable life lessons ("food is served from the right-hand side of the guest"), but we spent all our meagre wages on the fuel we needed to get us to work and back. (In frustration, we later set up our own company, so we could work on the things that we felt were important and would actually excite us.)

Academics take on the $400,000 salary for Administrators in Universities and institutions?, will the Canadian's campaign stir the money Pot in USA too?

For decades or as long as the academic system established, there was no scrutiny or challenge to the amount of salary paid to the so called Administrators, Deans, Vice-Chancellors etc, for the first time, a Canada based Academics facebook joke took a turn into a Campaigning, the Edmonton based group of academics are asking why is that a $400,000 (almost half a million dollar salary is given to an administrator in the university but the academics get paid 5 to 10 times lower salary than an administrator, yikes, is this the next union busting activism to happen after PostDoc Union?....

Academics Protest High Salaries of University Administrators

Tongue-in-cheek campaign highlights income disparity, program cuts

EDMONTON—After the job of president at the University of Alberta was advertised with a starting salary of $400,000, Kathleen Cawsey joked on Facebook with a fellow academic that they should jointly apply for the position and split the pay, making the point that they would both be better paid than they are currently.
A few other academic friends joined the conversation, and Cawsey, an associate professor of English at Dalhousie University, decided to get serious with the idea.
The joke then became a tongue-in-cheek campaign to apply in groups of four for the well-paid position. U of A’s current president is stepping down at the end of the month.
“I think we got 56 people who sent in applications in groups of four,” says Cawsey.

University of Toronoto PostDocs win Unionization Drive- Canada PostDocs Unionize.

CAUT & ACPPU Bulletin: Canada

Interesting news from our neighbors, the Canadian Postdocs are fighting for unionization, UofT is probably one of the first to win labor board certification and forming union, (I might be posting it bit later than the news release, nevertheless it is a good news and to be shared). Postdocs at Toronto win unionization drive

Postdoctoral scholars at the University of Toronto have been certified as a trade union by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, after a four-year organizing campaign. In the representation vote held in April, 73 per cent of postdocs voted in favour of unionization.

Postdocs whose salaries are paid by the UofT will be represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3902, and will become members of CAUT through that affiliation. The new bargaining unit will comprise approximately 600 postdocs, and will be the largest unionized group of postdocs in Canada.

Organizing efforts started in February 2009, when CUPE 3902 launched a drive to certify all postdocs at the university. An application was submitted to the OLRB five months later but the university challenged the application, arguing that postdocs were not employees and consequently not eligible for union representation. Although a vote was held, ballots were segregated and sealed while the parties litigated the challenge.
Read the full Article at the above bulletin Link
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University of Toronto News:Postdoctoral Fellows vote for trade union certification
June 4, 2013To:       PDAD&C; Professional & Managerial Staff From:   Angela Hildyard, Vice-President, Human Resources & Equity
Re:       Postdoctoral Fellows vote for trade union certification
On April 26, 2013, Postdoctoral Fellows voted on whether they wished to proceed with a CUPE application for trade union certification. Yesterday afternoon, the ballot boxes were opened and the votes tallied. The results were in favour of trade union certification.
CUPE will represent a set of the Postdoctoral Fellows, and we await documentation from the Labour Relations Board confirming the membership of this group.
Link: http://www.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/about-hr-equity/news/2013news/pfvftuc.htm
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Is Canadian Govt Research Funding in Peril?

from Nature News Blog site: Scientists march on Canadian parliament

10 Jul 2012 | 22:08 BST | Posted by Ivan Semeniuk | Category: Policy

Posted on behalf of Jennifer Carpenter.

To the mournful tune of a lone saxophone scientists marched through the streets of Ottawa and onto Canada’s Parliament Hill  to protest a glut of cuts to government research labs and — they say — a lack of evidence-based decision making in the Canadian government.


The 10 July rally drew an estimated 2000 scientists, graduate students and their supporters to the sunny capital, many of them dressed in white lab coats; smaller protests took place in other cities across the country including in Regina,  Guelph and Calgary.