Tag Archives: Build your branch

Organising for Idle Hands

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New ARPS Committee member, Peter Crowther, on combining his passions of trade union activism and 3D printing to help recruiting and organising in his branch at Birmingham City University.

A photo of two pink and white 3D printed fidget toys next to each other showing both sides of the design; one side with the words UCU ARPS on one side and a "love our ARPS" lovehearth logo on the other

I’m always after an excuse to 3D print something, you’ll struggle to find something broken in my house that hasn’t been repaired with some 3D printed widget, or a wall in my office without a 3D printed clock (another passion). When my branch at BCU moved to launch a formal ballot for industrial action in March it didn’t take me long to find a way to crowbar 3D printing into the mix.

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Love our ARPS

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Love our academic-related, professional services staff – more than just a lecturers’ union

The academic-related, professional services (ARPS) staff committee organised a month of activities to boost ARPS membership and ARPS-focused activities in branches.

Branches continue to be encouraged to elect an ARPS rep onto the branch committee, and hold meetings of ARPS members to discuss their concerns, and consider actions that would address them.

Catch up with our month of ARPS-focused activities including a webinar looking at the outcomes of research conducted by Professors Richard Watermeyer and Tom Crick into ‘professional services staff during the Covid-19 pandemic’.

We are all UCU: building branch ARPS groups

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ARPS members of UCU make up around 10% of the membership, yet unlike academic colleagues, they are often dispersed widely across each University and membership density varies across ARPS departments and functions. It can be hard to find allies under these circumstances and to make ARPS voices heard in branches. If you’ve ever shouted ‘it’s not just a lecturer’s union’ at the tv or radio then read on, because there is a way of trying to counter this, raise the profile of ARPS members and carve a place for them in your branches.  

The University of Sheffield’s ARPS group was born out of picket line conversations during the 2018 strikes which discussed these very issues. Isolation, confusion over ASOS and the difficulties of striking dominated the inaugural meeting, which attracted around 40 members from a wide range of ARPS roles. These included Heads of Service, Learning Developers and Library staff, amongst a wide range of others. The meetings provided a space to talk through issues, to discuss approaches to industrial action and to better understand the range of experiences across the University.   Continue reading →