Dear Editor
So Sid Ryan is “thinking” about running for President of the Ontario Federation of Labour! I’m sure Sid’s lackey Michael Coren can be counted on for glowing praise in a soon-to-be seen column. Think about the Days of Action in 1996, when Sid and his leftist buddies bussed in people from all over Ontario and even the States to try to close down Toronto, in an illegal “strike”.
Think about Sid’s twinning CUPE Ontario with the notorious OCAP, responsible for trashing Jim Flaherty’s office in Whitby and causing major disturbances at Queen’s Park. Think about professional business reps and elected officers being booked off their regular duties to work on political campaigns, while the grievance system becomes overloaded to the point the members won’t use it anymore. Think about Ryan prancing around on the world stage, able to use the dues money of all union members in Ontario, not just those in CUPE.
Think about Ryan’s attempts to take over the OMERS pension fund, and the political and economic power that would flow from that. Despite almost 20 years as the CUPE Ontario boss, he has never submitted to an open vote by all the CUPE members in Ontario; he holds office by virtue of delegates, overwhelmingly selected from the NDP-Marxist activists and social workers who swarm all over CUPE, bleeding it dry of the funds needed for bargaining and enforcing the collective agreement. And always remember, it’s the leftists who have caused the most damage to the labour movement.
Ryan’s ideologically-based personality-cult leadership
NDP’er Bob Rae thoroughly sabotaged public employees with his “Rae Days”, and leftist heart-throb John Sewell, then Mayor of Toronto, put Local 79 out on it’s first-ever strike in 1980. Ryan is approaching retirement age, and a gold-plated OMERS pension which will likely be paid at the rate for his CUPE Ontario salary rather than the rate for his long-ago job at Ontario Hydro; this is his last opportunity for “advancement”, and who knows what leftist lunacy he might want to indulge in if successful, knowing he won’t be on the scene much longer.
I urge all union members in Ontario to attend the meeting at which your delegates to the next OFL convention will be elected, and make it clear that you want to have proper bargaining and workplace representation, rather than being forced to support Ryan’s ideologically-based personality-cult leadership.
Fraternally yours,
Jeff Goodall,
Oshawa, Ontario
