Sid Ryan was elected President of the Ontario Federation of Labourt yesterday. This was not entirely unexpected, as all CUPE Local delegates to the OFL Convention can be expected to have voted for him, either to advance their/his ideology, or simply to get rid of him. And so it begins… but this time, on a different and bigger level.
My predictions: watch out for a move towards unwanted political activities that ignore workplace issues in favour of world-wide political posturing by Ryan; watch out for the Ontario Federation of Labour being “partnered” with controversial and sometimes violent organisations such as the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and others that may now be created to suit his political agenda; and, watch out for attempts to close down the entire Province along the lines of the “Days of Action” in 1996. Sid is close to retirement, and I suspect that he may want to complete “unfinished business” by picking a fight with the Province and trying to close it down again, and he will not be inhibited by concerns about his future in the labour movement as heading the OFL is all that’s left of it. Nonetheless, he can be expected to use it to the utmost. I predict that Ryan will continue playing in his leftist sandbox untrammelled by any concern for the wants and needs of the average member; after all, he has once again been elected by “delegates”, not by the hundreds of thousands of ordinary workers he claims to represent; and. he lives in a make-believe world, financed and sustained by those workers. This is his last chance for glory, and we would do well to watch him carefully; make-believe or not, he can do a lot of damage.
Jeff Goodall,
Oshawa, Ontario.
Jeff Goodall worked for the Metro Treasury and City Finance Departments for 25 years, and served as a member of the CUPE Local 79 Executive Board for 14 of those years.
