Author: LSU Media

In what is said to be a historic turning point in US industrial relations, Sebastian Wieneke takes a look at the efforts by Amazon workers to unionise, and the (often dubious) tactics used by upper management to thwart this   Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama are currently at the centre of a landmark vote to establish what could be the first unionised Amazon Warehouse in the United States. This vote is one of the first of its kind in Amazon’s 26-year history. Voting closed this Monday, but due to potential contest around vote counts from both sides, the outcome isn’t…

This is only loosely based on fact. A sheep has been resc-ewe-d from the boot of a car after a vehicle was seen running a red light. Stop me if ewe’ve herd about this before. A Peugeot was stopped in Loughborough High Street at 20:50 BST on Friday by PC Katie & PC Will. The driver and passenger claimed the animal was legitimately purchased – in fact, they insist they got it for a baa-gain, they “practically fleeced the guy who sold it.” The officers were unable to confirm this, due to a significant lamb-guage baa-rrier with the third occ-ewe-pant…

Having virtually disappeared from the political arena since his replacement took office, the question of everyone’s minds is still ‘what next for Donald Trump?’. Volunteer writer Ishaq Adams gives us his view on the situation and his prediction. Another failed impeachment, a landmark wall on the southern border with Mexico and the accusation toward the emerging global superpower, China, of crimes that have not been seen for over half a century. These were the last days of the 45th President of the United States, a presidency that will without a doubt go down in history as perhaps one of the…

Returning volunteer writer Ada Ughanwa discusses those known as ‘anti-vaxxers’ and whether or not they should take it in order to help our exit from the pandemic.  – ‘Anti-vaxxers’ are those who express a hint of doubt or share a slight scepticism towards the vaccine. As a result, they have been labelled as being the ‘opposition’ for the coronavirus vaccine roll out.  ‘Anti-vaxxers’ are concerned about the quick turnaround of the vaccine and the possible side effects it may have. Given the nature in which the vaccine was created, is it quite normal for there to be concerns such as…

Volunteer writer, Sebastian Wieneke, shares the speculative origins of April Fool’s Day as well as pranks/hoaxes that have been pulled before. On the first of April 1957, viewers of the investigative BBC programme Panorama were shown a hoax report on the “spaghetti harvest” taking place in the village of Ticino, Switzerland. The ‘farmer’ and his family are shown picking long pieces of the pasta off tree branches, while Richard Dimbleby goes on to explain that spaghetti farming here is small time compared to the “tremendous scale of the Italian industry”, and that each strand of spaghetti always grows to the…

Loughborough Students’ Union has released more details about the refurbishment taking place in their building. The Students’ Union have said that they had “began working with the University” to get funding for a new Union building, and had already conducted a series of focus groups looking at what the “key requirements” were for new spaces. The focus groups concluded that the Students’ Union needed to be an “inclusive, open, bright and airy” place that would be suitable for a “broad range of activities” with utilisation options for daytime and nighttime events. COVID-19, LSU stated, has impacted their income “significantly” and…

Following entering a partnership with Red Square, Loughborough Students’ Union will no longer serve VKs upon reopening, Label has discovered. Loughborough’s favourite drink, VK, will no longer be served at Union bars when they eventually reopen, not even the aptly named ‘Blue’ one, and will be replaced with Red Square versions (called ‘Red Square Blue Ice’) Admin of Loughborough Towersposting & Fusion lad, Jack Martin told Label that he was devastated: “They’ve ripped the beating heart out of our community, now what are we supposed to launch at people during Mr. Brightside?” This is not true, but imagine the outrage…

At a timely point, volunteer writer Ada Ughanwa pens a poem reflecting on a year of lockdowns. As we leave the downs that locked us before, We wait in eagerness to see what’s to come The world as we know it, has changed its face whilst we sit at home waiting for another day A day that seems so far yet it’s so close to come, our days will soon feel like days. We will cherish every moment that we are out with nature, we will hug and appreciate our loved ones We will look to the stars with no care…

Sci-Hub has been in the news recently as The City of London Police announced that the website is a risk to students. Seb Wieneke investigated the arguments surrounding freedom of information and academia… Describing themselves as “The first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers”, many in academia have at least heard mention of Sci-Hub. Created by Russian computer science researcher and “pirate queen” Alexandra Elbakyan, the site currently claims to have access to over 85 million academic papers, and it is estimated that it includes 80% of the…

LSU CASH’s Workshop Coordinator and volunteer writer, Megan McKone, gives a rundown of HIV and AIDS as well as how we can break the stigma surrounding them. HIV stands for the human immunodeficiency virus. Both men and women can contract HIV or AIDS, although it has been particularly associated with the gay and bisexual community, straight women and straight men may still have HIV passed onto them.  There is a lot of stigma around HIV and AIDS, which largely stems from the amount of gay men who had tested HIV or AIDS positive. HIV/AIDS patients were often refused treatment due…