Bitter battle brews within organized labour
Unifor leader says it’s time for OFL head Sid Ryan to resign from office
The president of Canada’s largest private sector union says it’s time for controversial Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) president Sid Ryan to go.
But Ryan insists he’s not going anywhere as he girds for the fight of his union career.
Unifor’s Jerry Dias told the Star that as much he respects the outspoken Ryan, he has to put the future of the labour movement in the province first.
“This issue for us was supporting Sid out of loyalty, or building the labour movement. We are going to build the labour movement,” said Dias, adding he fears that if Ryan stays on even more unions will leave the federation, joining the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and others.
“There is clearly a consensus among some of the top leaders across the province that they have lost confidence in Sid,” Dias said.
The criticisms levelled at Ryan, include his so-called autocratic leadership style, not keeping a hand on the financial tiller, and even contributing to a “poisonous” work environment at the OFL, where a hidden camera was recently discovered.
“It’s all part of get Sid,” Ryan said in response.
“My mandate comes democratically from the membership at OFL conventions and every decision is vetted through a diverse executive board, not from a half-dozen disgruntled union leaders,” he said.
Unifor is throwing its support behind longtime CAW/Unifor union official Chris Buckley, who has decided to run against Ryan at the November OFL convention. Buckley is now a national rep with Unifor.
Buckley’s decision does not sit well with 63-year-old Ryan, especially since Buckley was one of two people appointed in May by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to oversee the finances of the troubled feder- ation. The other person was the CLC’s Jasen Murphy.
“There is something odious and unethical about Mr. Buckley’s candidacy given that he was brought in good faith to work with the OFL,” Ryan said in an interview.
“He (Buckley) told the executive board he is not engaging in politics, he doesn’t want to play any politics and that he was strictly here to help us fix the finances. So, in some way he came in under false pretenses,” he said, claiming that since Buckley arrived the financial situation hasn’t improved a bit.
The 54-year-old Buckley, who stepped down Aug. 17 as a CLC-appointed administrator, said he would not get into a war of words with Ryan in the media.
“I have a great deal of respect for Sid Ryan. He has been a great activist. I have seen since May 7 that it’s time to rebuild the federation . . . we have so many challenges ahead of us across this province and across this country. I want to encourage affiliates to come back and join with me and other unions across the province and all of us head in the same direction,” he told the Star.
Ryan said he relishes the contest and the opportunity to take on those union leaders who, he says, have been undermining him since the first won the presidency in 2009.
“I will trust the delegates to make the right decision. My detractors will have the opportunity to put their candidate up for election,” Ryan said in a letter to CLC president Hassan Yussuff earlier this month, even before he found out Buckley was entering the race.
In a later letter sent to Yussuff that was obtained by the Star, Ryan said he would not be allowing an administration team into the OFL until further notice, but later backed off that position.
But Yussuff’s response was pointed: “Any attempt to prevent this from occurring will leave me with no choice but to consider full administration of the Ontario Federation of Labour by the Canadian Labour Congress.”
“I’d be very naive not to believe Mr. Buckley had ulterior motives from the beginning. I was upset that the CLC had not vetted properly nor performed their due diligence on the person they had placed in my organization in a position of absolute trust,” Ryan said in an interview.
“Mr. Buckley’s decision has got to go down as one of the most unethical and self-serving moves I’ve seen in my 30 years as a labour leader.”
Problems plaguing the OFL include the fact three unions are no longer paying dues in protest of Ryan’s leadership. They are: Ontario Public Service Employees Union — $680,000 annually; Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) $136,000; Local 1, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — $80,000. The OFL said the accumulated shortfall is about $4.5 million.
The Star had reported in May based on leaked documents, the OFL had $1million 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.
Buckley, a former long-time president of CAW local 222, said he had no intention to run for OFL president when he was appointed to oversee the operation.
But what he learned about the operation while acting as temporary administrator, including the finances and the “lack of solidarity” among all the unions, which “has been damaging to the OFL,” helped him decide to run for the federation’s top job, he said. “This is not only a financial situation that helped me make up my mind. It’s about rebuilding the OFL. It’s about uniting the labour movement across the province — something that has been lacking for quite some time.”
The OFL, which represents 48 unions, is an influential body that speaks for all labour groups in the province and has held sway with governments of all stripes. But in recent years it has become a house divided.
Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said his union will not rejoin the OFL under any circumstances until Ryan is gone.
“I think Chris Buckley will make a very good president,” said Thomas, who is very critical of Ryan’s “divisive” leadership style.
OPSEU’s reasons for not supporting Ryan’s leadership include “concerns about the internal management of the OFL, including the evident lack of adequate financial controls and accountability,” Thomas said.
“OPSEU will return to its role as a leading union in the Ontario Federation of Labour when mutual respect, democratic debate, and fairness are restored,” Thomas said in a letter to Ryan in April 2013.
Ryan, who makes about $120,000 a year, said, “I have been undermined by basically a small handful of union leaders from the first day I was elected in 2009 and now it’s time to allow the members to have their say.”