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The NSW branch of the Health Services Union has broken off its affiliation with the state Labor, saying the party is ‘unelectable’ and not worth spending money on.
The union’s governing body voted to disaffiliate from the NSW Labor Party, meaning the annual $250,000 in fees it pays to the party will dry up.
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said it was all about the money – and that the union wasn’t trying to send a message to Labor.
“We’re a union that is growing at a rapid rate, and that’s due to the fact that every dollar we spend has to have a positive return on it, industrially or politically. That underpins everything we do,” he said.
“Our councillors have taken the view that (staying affiliated) probably wasn’t the best use of our members’ money.”
A recent poll, commissioned by the HSU and the Australian Workers Union, showed an NSW Labor Party primary vote of just 23.9 per cent, a disastrous outcome for leader Jodi McKay.
She dismissed the poll as a “coward punch” by “faceless men” who had been trying to undermine her from day one.
But Mr Hayes said the poll was the final straw.
“They‘re unelectable, worse than they were in 2011. Whereas since 2011, we have virtually doubled the size of our union,” he said.
“Throwing good money after bad isn’t something we intend to do.”
He said the decision was firmly anchored within the union’s rank and file members and it wasn’t likely to change. And the union isn’t open to flirting with other political parties, either.
“We’ll be totally unaffiliated, and work to our strength running a high-profile, aggressive, intelligent union fighting for people on marginal wages in NSW, Queensland and the ACT,” he said.
NSW Labor declined to comment.
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