Cecilia Wee (Royal College of Art)

Tutor (Research), School of Communication, Royal College of Art  

Election address

I am Tutor (Research) at School of Communication, Royal College of Art. I have taught in pre- and post-92 institutions over the last 20 years, mostly as a casualised member.  

I have been a key member of RCA UCU since 2020, including serving as Membership officer, Equalities Officer and am currently co-Chair. I am an experienced caseworker and had a leading role in strategy and campaigning in RCA UCU's historic local dispute on casualisation in 2021-22. Through negotiations and industrial action, we secured a ban on zero-hours contracts (previously used for 90% of core teaching) and won permanent contracts for 90+ members of staff, including myself.  

Post-16 education today is facing unprecedented challenges, the most critical of which is funding for our sectors. Continued austerity measures and wilful under-investment within a marketised education sector are creating existential threats to our jobs, jeopardising the future of our institutions. We need a better deal for education.  

Our priorities must be secure employment, defending diversity of subjects for our students and ensuring that education is equitable and accessible. Whilst lobbying and advocacy are key to our strategy, disputes and industrial action are crucial to winning for members across post-16 education. We need to defend national bargaining, members' pay, conditions and pensions. 

I'm co-organiser of the Defend the Arts and Humanities grassroots group of UCU members and allies. I'm committed to fighting the trend of course closures, which have disproportionately affected arts, humanities and social sciences, with devastating impacts on members' livelihoods, culture and civil society.  

As a union with equalities at its heart, we must counter the rise of the Far Right, Reform, and attacks on marginalised communities. I am a queer, mental health disabled South East Asian woman and the first person in my family to go to university. My first-hand experiences of discrimination inform my commitment to equalities work as an academic, community organiser and union activist. I have been on the Disabled Members and Black Members standing committees, and am member of the Education Committee (NEC sub-committee).  

As an education union, UCU has an important role in the international trade union movement. Our educational institutions, as places where decolonial, critical thinking is nurtured, can and must fight for racial, disability, migrant and LGBTQ+ justice, the right to protest, academic freedom, climate justice and a free Palestine.  

I'm currently serving my first term as a NEC member. If re-elected, I would build on my knowledge and experience of the union, listening to and working with members and branches to create more equitable futures in our sector.   

I am honoured to stand for election alongside dedicated activists. I am an independent Left candidate, and not a member of a faction.