Steve McCabe.

Introducing – Steve McCabe:

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kātou. I’m Steve McCabe, and I’m standing for the position of Te Tumu Whakarae –Tiriti | National President –Tiriti, of TEU. I’m a Senior Lecturer in the Foundations programme for Nursing and Health Studies at Te Whare Takiura o Manukau | Manukau Institute of Technology. I’ve been here for eight years, and I’ve been the branch president for the MIT branch for five years. I’m originally from Manchester, the home of the labour movement, but I’ve had the privilege of calling Aotearoa my home since my family and I moved here sixteen years ago. I’ve been many things over the years—an English teacher in Japan, a flight instructor in Florida, a high-school teacher in South Auckland—and I’ve been a union member whenever I could be.

I'm standing because:

I believe that TEU, especially right now, needs an outspoken and passionate president who can lead our members through some of the greatest threats our profession and our sector has faced in many years. As your Tumu Whakarae – Tiriti | National President – Tiriti, I will be both a leader and a servant. I will do everything I can to be the leader that TEU needs as we face ongoing challenges from the government that ultimately holds the reins of the tertiary and vocational sector in Aotearoa, and if I have the privilege of leading TEU, I will fight hard to ensure that I provide the leadership that we will need.

What I will bring to the role:

I will bring a wide range of experience serving within Te Hautū Kahurangi |Tertiary Education Union. I have been a branch delegate, a branch co-president, and a branch president; a member of the Industrial and Professional Committee; a member of the most recent Te Pūkenga bargaining team; and a member, currently, of TEU’s National Council. I plan to use that experience of governance, of policy making and implementation, and of supporting members at the branch level, to guide me in serving the membership of TEU to the best of my ability. I will bring a fierce passion for union values and a strong commitment to supporting all of our members, but especially those who are in greatest need of support, the most vulnerable, the most precarious members. And I will bring my communication skills and network to the role, and be a loud and passionate voice across as many media as possible to make sure that the profile of TEU and its members is as prominent as possible, so that our voice is heard across Aotearoa, by the country’s leaders and by the people who elect them.

If I am elected, I hope to achieve:

If I am elected, I hope to achieve many things. I hope to raise the profile of TEU within all of our workplaces, and so raise our membership to make us the union of choice for all kaimahi within tertiary education. I hope to foster collaboration with NZEI Te Riu Roa and Te Whengarua the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association to create a national voice for education workers across Aotearoa. I hope to provide support and leadership for all of our members across our Wānanga, our polytechnics, our universities, and all the branches that make up our national Union. I hope to ensure that all of our members, no matter where they are in the country or where they work or what they do, feel like TEU understands their problems and is fighting for their best interests as they do the incredibly important and vital mahi that they commit themselves to every day at work. And I hope to spread the word across Aotearoa that TEU represents people who are working to create the future of this country, and that we are fighting not only for our members, but also for a publicly-funded tertiary and vocational education sector that can thrive and provide opportunities for students in all parts of New Zealand, no matter what, how, or where they choose to study and learn.

I will contribute to the implementation of the TEU's priority goals:

I will contribute to the implementation of the TEU's goals by working closely with my fellow Tumu Whakarae | National President, whoever that might be, to foster the strongest possible collaboration and cooperation between Tangata Māori and Tangata Tiriti within TEU. I believe in honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the foundational document of our country, and look forward to working alongside our next Tumu Whakarae – Māori to lead a truly co-governed Union in which the rights and responsibilities of all people within Aotearoa are truly respected. I will be a passionate and engaged advocate for the tertiary sector, and I will be a vocal proponent of a tertiary and vocational sector that is fully accessible and inclusive for all—kaiako and kaimahi alike. I will listen carefully to the needs of our most vulnerable members, and do whatever I can to ensure that all our members’ voices are heard. I will focus TEU’s energies on those who need our support the most; in the face of ongoing government erosions of gender and ethnic pay equity and parity, I will promote these causes and ensure that TEU leaves no member behind.