Opinion | These unions have seen a changing of the guard. Now they need to turn the page

If you believe in the vital role of unions, as I do, it’s been hard to watch the decline and fall of two titanic labour leaders accused of improprieties.

Both were larger than life characters who looked — and acted — like they came straight from central casting in a bygone era: Egotistical. Quotable. Irascible. Gruff. Impolite. Impolitic.

Warren “Smokey” Thomas ran Ontario’s most important public sector union with an erratically firm hand — a hand now alleged to have been lining his own pocket, according to a lawsuit launched this year by the OPSEU movement he once led.

Jerry Dias ran Canada’s biggest private sector union with a smoother hand — a hand that was also caught in the cookie jar as he consummated kickbacks from suppliers, according to an investigation last year by the colleagues he left behind at Unifor.

The two labour giants had little time for each other, let alone Doug Ford. Yet in their final months in power they made an unprecedented joint appearance where the premier announced a long-overdue increase to the minimum wage that he’d frozen so cynically for the previous 36 months.

The old Ford had previously baited them both as “bosses,” despite their democratic credentials as duly elected labour leaders. At a late-2021 photo-op, a more circumspect premier dutifully paid his respects to the unionists as he announced higher pay for the working poor

But soon after that fateful photo-op for a hard-won pay hike, these two lifelong labour leaders faced intense fire.

The downfall of Dias came unexpectedly when he was denounced for alleged kickbacks and obstruction of a probe into his conduct. A third-party investigation accused Dias, who retired suddenly last year, of getting $50,000 from a COVID-19 rapid test supplier, with Unifor referring the details to police.

The controversies faced by OPSEU’s Thomas were hardly his first. I’d written several columns since 2016 documenting allegations of mismanagement and mistreatment of internal critics and his union’s own unionized office employees.

His Ontario Public Service Employees Union had taken to litigating instead of negotiating with those who dared to challenge him. He’d lawyer up and deploy publicists to take on and take down his internal and external critics.

Seven years ago I wrote about how five senior executives working for Smokey served a notice of libel against leaders of OPSEU locals for daring to raise questions about the “workplace culture” at headquarters (as president, Thomas was barred by union rules from joining).

One of those named in that 2016 libel notice: JP Hornick, a labour studies professor and chair of an OPSEU unit representing about 12,000 members from colleges across the province.

“We need to set a gold standard in terms of workplace relations,” Hornick told me at the time.

All these years later, the roles have been reversed and the shoe is on the other foot. More precisely, Hornick now walks in the OPSEU president’s shoes, elected to succeed Thomas after his 2022 retirement.

In January she announced a $6-million lawsuit against her predecessor and other retired or departed OPSEU managers. They are accused of improperly siphoning off funds from a union strike fund without explanation or documentation, and receiving improper additional compensation.

The allegations are detailed in a statement of claim filed in Ontario’s Superior Court following a forensic audit ordered by the union. The allegations have not been proven in court.

Thomas counters that the union he headed for nearly 15 years is now mounting a vendetta and “culminates a long campaign by Mr. Thomas’ political rivals … to demean, politically destroy, and cause irreparable emotional and reputational harm to him and his associates. It has no basis in reality, and is entirely manufactured,” according to his statement of defence. He has filed $5.5-million counterclaim, while the others accused of wrongdoing have also denied all allegations in court filings.

Last month, OPSEU’s new leadership launched a new $24 million lawsuit against three former senior employees and at least 15 individuals or businesses accused of bogus schemes for unfinished work and kickbacks amid undisclosed ties. Thomas is not named in that legal action, and the allegations in this statement of claim have not been proven in court.

Whatever the outcome, it is a depressing coda to a dispiriting era at OPSEU. While the allegations of irregularities on the financial side remain before the courts, the history of abysmal labour relations within OPSEU are a matter of public record.

While still in power, Thomas approved the hiring of a self-described “management-side lawyer,” Matthew R. Vella, to investigate members of its own staff union ahead of hearings at the Ontario Labour Relations Board for “unfair labour practices.” As I noted in a previous column, the website for Vella’s firm cited “union avoidance” at the top of his list of qualifications.

OPSEU is now under new management with Hornick, trying hard to regain its footing. Unifor is also under new leadership, with Lana Payne taking over from Dias as the private sector union tries to regain its stride (disclosure: Toronto Star journalists are members).

It is a historic changing of the guard. Even if these two storied unions have yet to fully turn the page.

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