Sid Ryan elected President of the Ontario Federation of Labour

Congratulations Sid, our new President Elect for the Ontario Federation of Labour!

Sid Ryan, President Elect for the Ontario Federation of Labour

Elect Sid Ryan for OFL President

With a strong labour movement…
our future course is a matter of choice, not chance. I believe that the next few years are a defining moment for the labour movement in Ontario.

The recent economic recession provides us with a movement-building opportunity to offer an alternative vision for the new economy and progressive social change.

Enhancing labour’s ability to reach out to unorganized workers and youth, to develop new alliances with community groups advocating for housing, public child care, social inclusion and environmental sustainability, and to ensure that the benefits of the new green economy are widely shared, must go hand-in-hand with strengthening unity within labour. As well as an opportunity, the chance to regain labour’s leadership role shaping social and economic policy, is an immense challenge – one that cannot be met if we are a divided labour movement.

I believe that strong unions and a strong, activist Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) are needed today more than ever to champion the rights of working people – whether they are unionized or not.

I am running for President of the OFL because I believe that with your support we can Make Ontario Work.

Sid Ryan
November 2009

The New Economy
Labour Unity
Social Solidarity

Economic recession both a challenge and an opportunity to create a positive movement on the left” Sid Ryan, the new OFL president

TORONTO, Ont.–Uniting the labour movement in Ontario, taking a leadership role in building the new ‘green economy’ and reaching out to unorganized workers by giving them a reason to join a union, will be the focus for the labour movement in Ontario for the next two years, said Sid Ryan, the newly elected president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL).

Ryan, the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario for the last 17 years, was chosen president of Canada’s largest labour federation at the OFL’s biannual convention in Toronto earlier today.

Convention delegates embraced Ryan’s activist vision for the labour movement as a progressive voice for working people, one that takes a leadership role in building social cohesion and in forging the new economy. Our future rests in creating a positive movement of the left by opening the doors of the labour movement and broadening our alliances with environmentalists, social justice advocates, affordable housing activists and young workers,” said Ryan.

He acknowledged the challenges faced by all workers today as employers emboldened by the economic downturn are making aggressive moves to roll back wages and working conditions. “They are doing this by demonizing and scapegoating unionized workers and creating a culture of envy that pits workers against one another,” said Ryan, who stressed that all workers should have access to a decent pension, quality public child care and post-secondary education for their children.

Throughout the convention, Ryan highlighted that unifying the labour movement in Ontario would be a priority in his first term as the federation’s new president.

“During economic upheaval, marked by the rise of low-wage, part-time jobs, the decline in union density, high unemployment and aggressive attempts to roll back unionized workers’ wages, benefits and pensions—a divided labour movement—is an easy target.

“Only a strong and united labour front working in solidarity with community partners will be able to withstand the attack. And labour in Ontario will be unified and ready to meet the challenge,” said Ryan, in recognizing the importance of the return of the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) to the OFL.

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For more information, please contact:

Sid Ryan (416) 209-0066
Stella Yeadon (416) 559-9300

Elections for new Ontario labour movement leadership tomorrow; Sid Ryan to seek OFL presidency

Press Release: November 24th, 2009

Elections for new Ontario labour movement leadership tomorrow;
Sid Ryan to seek OFL presidency

TORONTO, Ont.–Working people from across the province will elect new provincial labour leadership tomorrow, November 25, 2009, at the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) biennial convention being held in Toronto this week.

Sid Ryan, the Ontario president of the 250,000 member Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, is seeking the presidency of the labour federation that speaks for nearly 1,000,000 private and public sector unionized workers who are members of affiliated unions across Ontario.

Under the banner of ‘Make Ontario Work,’ Ryan unveiled a new activist vision for the labour movement as a progressive voice for working people, one that takes a leadership role in building social cohesion and in forging the new economy.
 
“I believe that strong unions and a strong activist federation of labour are needed today more than ever to champion the rights of working people—whether they are unionized or not.

“With the rise of a low-waged, part-time job economy and aggressive attempts to roll back workers’ wages, benefits and pensions, the future of labour rests in reaching out to unorganized workers, new immigrants and youth. New alliances with community groups advocating for affordable housing, public child care, social inclusion and environmental sustainability, pensions for all workers and to ensure that the benefits of the new green economy are widely shared, must go hand-in-hand with strengthening unity within the Ontario labour movement,” says Ryan.

In addition to leading CUPE Ontario for the last 17 years, Ryan currently serves as an OFL Vice-President, and is a Vice-President of CUPE National, Canada’s largest union representing over 590,000 members across Canada.

Nomination and election for all three full-time OFL officers’ positions are scheduled for 10:15 a.m., Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel (123 Queen Street West, Toronto) in the Grand Ballroom.

For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon                                                          (416) 559-9300
For the Sid Ryan Campaign website, please visit:   http://www.sidryanforofl.ca

A labour movement tradition using art to ‘Hold the Line’

For over a hundred years, the labour movement has used visual art and music to highlight the struggles of working people. Using new technologies, today’s generation of labour artists, photographers and filmmakers are continuing to strengthen the movement by recording workers’ cultural and workplace history.

In the era of tightly controlled ‘corporate’ media, the stories of working people, their ideas, and the challenges they face, are rarely told. “This is why it’s key that the labour movement support and partner with progressive artists to tell the stories of working people.”

'Hold The Line' - a documentary on the Municipal strike in Windsor

“The beginning of a worker-focused film festival is an important event,” says Sid Ryan, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario president who will be among those speaking at the opening night (Sunday, November 22, 2009) in Toronto of the first-ever Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF) – November 22-28. CLiFF is a national event, with dozens of cities and towns across Canada taking part in the festival.

‘Hold the Line,’ a film commissioned by CUPE Ontario and produced by award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee will be featured at the opening of the festival. The film documents the CUPE municipal strike in Windsor and how that employer and others are using the recent economic recession as the excuse to attack workers’ benefits.

Organizers of the festival say that “the world of labour has found it increasingly difficult to communicate its message as fewer and fewer people have greater control over the means of communication – the media.

It is more important than ever that working people be able to tell their own stories in their own words and in their own images.”

COPE491/EW

For more information about CliFF and film showings, go to: http://labourfilms.ca/cliff/

Wrong turn: Corporate giant locks out and terminates workers

Despite assets of more than $16 Billion and $1 Billion profits in 2008, Cadillac Fairview went to the bargaining table with 61 skilled trades and maintenance staff at the Toronto-Dominion Centre and demanded contract roll-backs. While workers represented by Communications, Energy and Paper Workers Local 2003 attempted to engage in meaningful negotiations, the real estate corporate giant had other ideas. In June they locked out the workers. Then a few weeks later they fired all 61 of them and contracted out their jobs.

Sid Ryan rallying with locals across Ontario for CEP local 2003

On November 12, 2009, CUPE Ontario mobilized members from GTA locals to support the ‘Cadillac Fairview 61’ in their struggle for justice at the bargaining table.
 
Cadillac Fairview is among many private and public sector employers (including municipalities) that are using the economic crisis to roll back wages, benefits and working conditions of unionized workers.
 
 “A unified labour movement, with private and public sector workers standing together, is the only way to curb the rising tide of anti-worker attacks, like the lockout and termination of 61 members of CEP Local 2003. The attack on workers is pure corporate greed. It’s wrong.”
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