A step backwards for worker freedom

Today, the US Supreme Court issued its worst decision on labor rights in decades in Janus v. AFSCME. The 5-4 decision uses a narrow conception of individual rights to declare that workers are free to opt out of paying for the cost of negotiating and enforcing union contracts from which they benefit. It does so by stating…

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Awards Season

I was both honored and humbled to learn recently that I am the 2018 recipient of the Canadian Sociological Association’s Early Investigator Award. I’ll have to wait until 2019 to pick up the actual hardware, since this year’s CSA meeting is pre-empted by the International Sociological Association Meeting in Toronto, but I’ll take the official…

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Commenting on the G7 summit in Quebec

The G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec wrapped up this past weekend. While most of the coverage focused on President Trump’s petulant behavior and his refusal to sign onto the closing communiqué, some reporters did want to know about the actual issues surrounding the summit, and the efforts of those who disagree with the political…

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Labor and the Class Idea on the New Books Network

I recently had a chance to talk about my book, Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada, with Sarah Patterson for the New Books in Sociology Network podcast. You can listen here: http://newbooksnetwork.com/barry-eidlin-labor-and-the-class-idea-in-the-united-states-and-canada-cambridge-university-press-2018/

Talking social movements on CBC

On Thursday, June 7, 2018, I got to discuss some of the core issues I bring up in my Contemporary Social Movements class with CBC Saskatchewan listeners on Blue Sky with Garth Materie: why and when do people mobilize? When can protests work? How do movements win? It was an interesting experience doing a call-in…

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