The Ontario Federation of Labour is so cash-strapped that is has been assigned a financial administrator to oversee its affairs, the Star has learned.

With millions of dollars in dues lost because of complaints about the way the umbrella labour group is being run, the OFL is barely able to keep its head above water as the bills pile up.

According to an email obtained by the Star, the organization has $1 million 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.

“In fact the credit line is what we have been using to pay the OFL payroll and bill payments for over a year,” the OFL’s secretary-treasurer Nancy Hutchison said in the email to union leaders dated March 26.

The three unions no longer paying dues are: Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) — $680,000 annually; Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) $136,000; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — $80,000. The OFL said the accumulated shortfall is about $4.5 million.

OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas pointed his finger at OFL president Sid Ryan, and said his union is unhappy with how the OFL is being run.

“Mr. Ryan has two choices. Mend his ways or resign,” Thomas said in an email statement to the Star. He added later by phone: “I believe it (the OFL) is living on borrowed time already.”

Ryan, who is running for re-election in November, said the release of the internal OFL documents “is obviously mischief-making” by people trying to derail his re-election bid.

“There is . . . a handful of people with a political agenda, who keep leaking to the media to create the illusion that the OFL is going to go out of existence,” he said.

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. In the unlikely event that it ceased to exist, the union movement would be seriously hobbled.

Ryan, who makes about $120,000 a year, said he is confident he can right the financial ship, despite having to cope with 20 years of legacy costs, including an unfunded pension plan and, according to Hutchison, “a massive unfunded liability of $406,277.77 in our banked vacation.”

He said the OFL has had a credit line for 20 years to cover the almost daily shortfall.

“There is almost $600,000 in arrears on any given day at the OFL . . . so the arrangement we made with the bank about 20 years ago was that we would basically have a rolling line of credit, so when we have bills that come in and have to be paid right away we use the line of credit,” Ryan explained.

The OFL’s projected revenue for 2014-15 is $4.1 million. On average, Ryan said about 900 cheques come into the federation from various affiliates every month and that every time one arrives it goes right on the line of credit.

Officials with the SEIU and ONA both declined to comment.

But Thomas said OPSEU members have twice voted on whether the union should rejoin the OFL again and “both times, the members overwhelmingly endorsed our position to remain outside of the OFL until the appropriate structural changes are made.”

“We have established principles, policies and standards that govern our conduct. A commitment to accountability, transparency, equity, respect and a welcoming environment, where all thoughts and opinions can be expressed without reprisal are non-negotiable. Accordingly, Mr. Ryan’s leadership at the OFL has been a colossal failure,” Thomas said in his email.

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Meanwhile, the Canadian Labour Congress, the parent union organization, has stepped in and appointed a financial administrator to oversee the operation of the OFL. The team is Chris Buckley from Unifor and CLC’s Jasen Murphy.

“It concerns all of us and I have said to the officers directly that we’ve got to deal with the challenges that they are faced with . . . and hopefully make their obligations of paying their bills on time and their payroll on time,” CLC president Hassan Yussuff told the Star.

Yussuff said he can’t say whether Ryan is to blame for OFL’s problems or the unions that are on a dues strike.

“At the end of the day officers of the federation have to have a good relationship and be able to work with each other in a collegial fashion,” he said.

Unifor president Jerry Dias said there is no need to panic, and believes the OFL financial state of affairs can be brought into line in three to four months.

“It would have been helpful for us to react sooner but we are reacting now,” Dias said.

As for Ryan’s tempestuous leadership, Dias said Ryan, the former president of CUPE-Ontario, is a powerful personality who speaks his mind.

“You are not going to have a successful leader of any federation . . . by being charm school graduate. Some might point the finger at Sid but I don’t think that’s fair,” Dias said.

48 – Number of unions represented by the Ontario Federation of Labour.

$4.5 million — Accumulated shortfall because unions are no longer paying bills to OFL.

$1 million — Outstanding payments owed by the OFL, according to an email obtained by the Star.

$120,000 — OFL president Sid Ryan’s approximate salary.