Citing attacks on skilled trades funding, Canada’s largest construction union, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), has formally withdrawn from the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), which is a blow to the province’s labour movement.
According to a statement issued by Joseph Mancinelli, LiUNA’s international Vice President and Canadian Director, the OFL and Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) have attacked the fund “under the guise of protecting colleges,” and criticized these politically motivated attacks on the provincial government’s Skilled Development Fund (SDF), which is a key funding program of the Ontario Government overseen by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
The funds have been used by LiUNA to support its extensive network of private training centres to fund apprenticeships and skills training which, Mancinelli stated, “empowered opportunities for marginalized communities, students, women in trades, youth at risk, second chance career paths and our Indigenous partners.”
The OFL and OPSEU have been critical of the SDF as they believe it diverts public funds to private training programs that instead should go to Ontario’s public college system, though Mancinelli assured that LiUNA maintains a “strong partnership with our colleges in Ontario and it is a disservice to create a conflict between private sector training centers and colleges… We will return when the OFL starts treating private sector unions fairly as opposed to favoring public sector unions to the detriment of LiUNA and its hundreds of thousands of members,” Mancinelli concluded in his statement.
