Million dollar union slush fund may be cut
Rob Hosking at NBR reports:
A $1 million government funding to the Council of Trade Unions to run accident prevention workshops is under review.
ACC Minister Judith Collins recently announced a near doubling of the amount of funding the Accident Compensation Corporation makes for accident prevention work, from $22.4 million to $40 million.
However that is accompanied by a review of existing programmes and in an interview with NBR ONLINE Ms Collins said she had told officials there are no sacred cows with regards to existing programmes.
“And I’ve told them if they need to kill sacred cows that need slaughtering, I’ll back them.”
And in the next breath she queries the value of programmes run by the Council of Trade Unions.
The CTU gets “about a million dollars a year” to run such programmes and she says it is not obvious this is the best use of that money.
“What I want to see is what is working.”
Comparatively few accidents happen in the workplace, she says – about 20%, although these injuries tend to be more serious.
This is beyond excellent. Not only is Judith Collins doubling the amount of funding for accident prevention, she is going to ensure it is actually spent on accident prevention rather than union membership recruitment.
I understand the $1 million a year funding to the CTU was established by a former Labour Deputy Leader when he was ACC Chair. Labour constantly tries to find ways for taxpayers to fund unions so that the unions in turn can fund the Labour Party!
The CTU has responded by hysterically demanding Judith Collins resigns, because she is demanding proof that they actually do anything worthwhile with their $1 million a year.
I understand Business NZ gets some funding also. I’d scrap the funding to both bodies, and use it to run safety campaigns at the coal face.