Tensions rise over OFL’s finances
Ex-leaders of labour group blast current head, Sid Ryan, as parent union intervenes
The threat of further union defections from the financially troubled Ontario Federation of Labour triggered the Canadian Labour Congress’ intervention, says a former OFL president.
Gord Wilson told the Star on Friday that three other unions made it clear “we have had enough and we’ll be gone” if someone wasn’t brought in to rein in expenses at the Sid Ryanled OFL.
The Star reported Friday that the Canadian Labour Congress, the parent union organization, has stepped in and appointed a financial administrator to oversee the operation of the OFL.
Ryan acknowledged in an interview there was pressure from some unions, which he says don’t seem to understand that some of the OFL’s financial woes are not of his making but rather legacy costs from previous regimes.
The rift within the provincial labour body widened Friday when Wilson and another former president, Wayne Samuelson, said Ryan should stop blaming everyone else for his financial woes. Wilson was president from 1986 to 1997 and Samuelson, 1997 until 2009, when Ryan was elected.
“He has his own problems and he should be dealing with them rather than looking for people to blame,” Samuelson said.
Supporters and critics alike agree it is tough for the OFL to keep its head above water with millions of dollars in dues lost because three big unions pulled out over concerns with the way the umbrella labour group is being run.
They are: Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) — $680,000 annually; Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) $136,000; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — $80,000. The OFL said the accumulated shortfall is about $4.5 million.
According to an email obtained by the Star, the OFL has $1 million in outstanding payments, a budget shortfall of $200,000 for the first six months of this fiscal year, and a $250,000 credit line that’s maxed out most weeks.
Ryan told the Star the reduced revenue, outstanding financial obligations for banked vacation and severance pay, and unfunded pension liabilities have made his tenure a tough slog.
He said, as an example, before he took over the OFL was paying about $40,000 a year in special payments to cover pension shortfalls and after the stock market crash those payments jumped $270,000 a year — “that’s the kind of legacy costs I am talking about.”
The OFL was warned this year of a “massive unfunded liability of $406,277.77” in banked vacation.” The outspoken Ryan acknowledged that not everyone agrees with his style of leadership, which he says is to bring in people from all walks of the labour movement and give them an equal voice — no more or no less than the big players like OPSEU.
“There are some folks that don’t subscribe to that style of trade unionism. It goes against their grain and consequently there’s friction developed as a result of trying to broaden the labour movement and broaden its reach,” he said.
“I am a great believer if we stay the way we are and only look after our own members and our own interests we are going to die on the vine very quickly,” he said.
Ryan dismissed the retired Gord Wilson as a guy who hasn’t gotten over the fact he’s no longer president of the OFL, and reminded his critics that airing the OFL’s financial difficulties only fuels attacks by antilabour types. “It is only hurting the labour movement,” Ryan said.
“This stuff from (OPSEU president Warren) Smokey Thomas and this kind of stuff from Gord Wilson only sows seeds of dissension and splinters the labour movement and gives the likes of Stephen Harper a great laugh when he read the Toronto Star this morning,” he said, referring to the front-page story Friday on the OFL’s financial challenges.
Thomas says Ryan must either change his ways or he should resign.