Duncan Moore (FE Central Group England)

ACE

Election address

·     All strike together

UCU members have fought hard and won significant pay increases. Our pickets have been well attended and the mood for change palpable. We can build on that towards an aggregate ballot of FE workers in a future pay round.

But to do that we need a fighting leadership that gives a clear and consistent lead.

·     Action on pay and workloads 

We still have a way to go to recover the 35% fall in real pay since 2009.

Unmanageable workloads and casualisation blight FE. Staff work evenings and weekends for free. Stress and poverty wages force people out. I support UCU's campaign for national bargaining agreements on pay and workloads which are binding on college principals.

•    Fight for Full Funding

Adult and Community Education doesn't get the funding it needs. Local authorities which fund services for our EHCP learners have suffered huge cuts from the Tories since 2010. I believe Labour authorities should have resisted those cuts. The chancellor has announced more spending cuts, including further education and local authorities.

We must demand a commitment to full funding of FE from a Labour government.

The UCU's political fund does not contribute to any political party. However, we should support candidates who stand for our union's policies. I am a Socialist Party member, and have stood for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in local elections.

•    Resist the anti-union laws

The Tories' 'Minimum Service Levels' legislation could force members to work during a strike. UCU should call on all employers to refuse to issue work notices. If ever there was a time for the TUC to act, uniting all trade unions in the defence of any union or group of workers, it is now.

I believe there is a need for a new left in our union that can bring together all those members who want to campaign for a serious, fighting strategy.

Please vote No. 1 for Duncan Moore, and use your other two votes for sitting left-wing FE NEC members Naina Kent and Dharminder Sing Chuhan. 

Bio: I'm a maths tutor with EatThatFrog CIC.

I have been involved in the trade union movement since I started work as a carer. I assisted the reconstitution of my former Unite branch in Devon.

When I started in post-16 education, there was no union recognition and I was the only UCU member in my workplace. In two years I have recruited half the staff in my college. The growing strength of our branch forced our employers to concede a 6.5% pay rise, the biggest increase they have ever given. We will carry on fighting for 15.4%, and action on workloads.