Labour, Port of Auckland back plan for a new taxpayer-funded agency to provide delegate training

The Labour Party is tentatively backing a policy proposal from the Council of Trade Unions for a new taxpayer-funded agency to provide delegate training.

Port of Auckland was also in favour, saying its strong relationship with the Maritime Union had helped it to a record profit.

The Workplace Relations Minister said it's "not an area of focus". ACT's David Seymour - said while ongoing workplace training was valuable, he would not support taxpayer money being spent on union-exclusive education.

The Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) proposal would see a new Workplace Education Agency set up to provide training and support to unions "to significantly enhance their capability and capacity".

With Labour yet to announce any major policy, this was the first of about 10 policies the CTU is releasing as part of its "Aotearoa Reimagined" wishlist through to mid-2026, in hopes they would be considered by political parties ahead of next year's election.

Union delegates needed training, it said - to understand how to support members, recruit and organise - but "the capacity to provide support for this transformation currently does not exist at scale".

The agency would "build on the experience" of the Trade Union Education Authority set up in 1986, which employed about 40 staff and provided about 150,000 days of training to workers before a National government saw that role largely superceded by Industry Training Organisations then scrapped the agency in 1992.

The new WEA would have a "strong physical and digital presence" and be available to provide "third-party support for advanced industrial democracy approaches" to employers, but its role would be largely geared towards supporting unions:

• 1. Support union membership, delegate and organiser development, either through providing learning and development directly to delegates and/or by providing learning and development to union educators.
• 2. Support internal union organisational capability by providing learning and development programmes concerning the operation of union organisations, including governance, financial management, IT, HR, management, and other skills.
• 3. Support unions with developing organisational capacity to support Te Tiriti within their structures and in their industrial and political work.
• 4. Support unions and employers who are pursuing mutual gains approaches such as high performance and high engagement models of employment relations, or collaborative health and safety efforts, with third party facilitation and training.
• 5. Provide research and promote evidence of successful union development approaches, including promoting the value of unions for workplace job quality and productivity enhancement.
• 6. Support industry parties to organise their interests and engage on opportunities like fair pay agreements, pay equity, just transitions, industry training, and industry planning.
• 7. Learning development for union representatives on external bodies, especially in governance roles.

This would be paired with yet-to-be-detailed changes to industrial relations law the CTU intended to urge political parties to take up.

CTU president Richard Wagstaff said the proposal was for "unions functioning well ... building skills like negotiating skills, bargaining and organising skills and so forth".

"In that sense, it is restricted to unions, since individuals can't do those things and don't do those things, but it would also be available to employers where it was agreed with unions that actually they could do some upskilling.

"Many employers don't have much experience or understanding of how to engage unions productively and we think there could be some real benefit in building both union and employer capability where that's required - but in principle it's mostly about unions building their experience, their understanding and their knowledge and skills."

Support from the port

Port of Auckland communications manager Julie Wagener said a "high-performance, high-engagement" model had meant deeply involving workers and the Maritime Union in decision making, which had been empowering for staff and led to productivity and business improvements.

"They're coming to us with ideas and and that's really good for everybody," she said.

The Port on Thursday reported a record profit of $85.4 million - a 55 percent increase on the previous year - paying a total $97m dividend to Auckland Council.

"Let's be honest, we could not have done it without support from our union and our union members so a big thank you to them."

She said the company was "really supportive" of the proposal in principle.

"We believe that delegates are leaders in the business, and the better trained they are, the better our collaboration, the better our negotiations - all that sort of stuff. It's a bit of a win-win-win for both business, unions and, of course, the individuals who are getting upskilled.

"We have talked to the CTU, and we believe that this training supports better health and safety outcomes, supports better leadership, which inevitably supports business."

Labour in favour, ACT calls it a 'favour to the unions'

Wagstaff said the CTU had raised the broad idea with political parties, like Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori - but not the detail of the policy.

The proposal document argued unions' access to training resources was insufficient and "this is unlikely to change ... in a hostile political environment".

"The role of unions as the collective voice of workers in the workplace and beyond has been seriously hampered by political and business leaders who either do not understand and/or are ideologically opposed to unions," the document said.

Labour's workplace relations spokesperson Jan Tinetti said the idea "has a lot of merit," but stopped short of offering full support.

"It's something that we're quite positive about and will look into," she said. "To keep our workers in the know, to keep our workers updated, is a really positive aspect of this. We've spoken about it as a caucus, and we want to investigate it further."

"We are not in a position at the moment that we're announcing policy, but we are definitely looking at things that will make a difference for our workers."

Wagstaff said the union had not approached the likes of National or ACT, and had not spoken with Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden.

"We wouldn't waste our time ... she won't meet with us as a rule - she's met with us a couple of times and made it clear she doesn't want to, and we wouldn't expect that she would be on the side of enhancing worker voice. There's nothing that she's done that's done anything but reduce worker voice, so we would assume that would be her agenda here."

RNZ repeatedly sought an interview with van Velden, but she refused, saying that it was not her area of focus for the government, which was to deliver health and safety, employment law, and Holidays Act reforms.

ACT leader David Seymour, however, did not shy away.

"No, I wouldn't support a lifelong learning initiative that was exclusive to unions - that smacks of political favouritism, and frankly, the Labour Party are far too close to the unions," he said.

"I welcome the Labour Party coming up with some policy and addressing real concerns people have. I think as the economy becomes more technological, lifelong learning is important - but with union membership having been in freefall for decades, it's not obvious why unions are the right vehicle."

He said it seemed like a policy that would be a "favour to the unions".

"Put it this way: if one of the major donors of the ACT Party was promoting a policy that would give them a whole lot of taxpayer cash they would be having conniptions. Somehow they set a lower standard for themselves."

Tinetti pushed back on that, saying the training on offer should be of benefit to all workers.

"That's why it needs investigation, because I think it has potential beyond the way that people are seeing it as just union - it's about workers ... we want to make certain that if that's something that we do sign up for and work through, that we are working for all workers of this country to make sure that we've got good quality jobs for everyone.

"I think the taxpayer understands that they want to see an engaged workforce that means productivity of businesses ... so if the public can see that I think they would be really supportive."

Wagstaff said it was about supporting unions for the benefit of workers and employers alike.

"I'm not surprised that ACT doesn't understand the value of unions, doesn't understand the collective approach to worker voice and the value of it, and that's part of the problem - is that we have a dearth of understanding and experience from many people in our economy about how to work with unions," he said.

"Non-members are better off in union jobs than they are in places where there aren't unions. However, this is about upskilling unions and employers to be better at what they do."

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