Marco Tesei (Ealing Hammersmith and West London College)

Marco Tesei (Ealing Hammersmith and West London College) 

Election address 

I am an ESOL lecturer at West London College and have been in FE for almost twenty years.  I am vice-chair of my branch and the college's workload rep.  

I am passionate about our sector, which represents potential opportunities and bright futures for working-class communities.  But it is so chronically underfunded that, instead, our teenage and adult learners are being severely deprived and staff increasingly underpaid and overworked.  Years of neoliberal austerity policies and the marketisation of our sector since the 1992 incorporation of colleges have shamefully knocked FE to its knees.   

We need a determined fightback, now!  
  
I support UCU taking the lead in a serious, bold campaign to:  

• Achieve full funding for FE and pay parity with school teachers. Restore the real-terms value of salaries to at least pre-2010 levels.  

• Deliver a binding national bargaining framework for FE immediately to ensure the same improvements in pay and conditions across all colleges.  

• Stop and reverse the marketisation of FE! FE should be under democratic public control and management, not unelected corporate directors.  

• Bring in the participation of teachers, students and parents in the operational management of colleges - open the books and keep them open so we can collectively decide how to spend the money!  

• Immediately repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act's 50% threshold and 2023 Minimum Service Levels legislation.  

• Build a movement, with the trade unions playing a key role, to unify workers against the far right, racism, sexism and other kinds of division which weaken our movement. For jobs, homes and services, not racism.  

UCU members fought hard in the strike wave, but we need a fighting, democratic leadership that gives a bold, clear and consistent lead. I support:  

• Nationally coordinated action to win the New Deal For FE demands, which is properly supported and resourced by UCU HQ.   

• Coordinated action with non-academised 6th Form college colleagues in NEU.  

• A political strategy that puts much more pressure on the present Labour government, including demonstrating that we are prepared to take action. We should reach out to the independent and suspended labour MPS to champion our campaigns and interests.  

• Implementation of conference decisions - for a national demonstration in defence of Post-16 education before spring budget 2025.  

• A genuinely democratic, member-led union.  

I do not belong to any UCU faction. I am open to working with anyone who wants a serious, fighting strategy. I believe the union needs a new left bringing together all those interested in working together to achieve this.  I am a Socialist Party member and socialist principles inform my trade union practice.  

Please vote No. 1 for Marco Tesei and use your other preferences for incumbent left FE NEC members John Fones and Sean Vernell.