In November 2009, Ryan was acclaimed to the position of president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). He was re-elected for a second term in 2011 and again in 2013 and retired in 2015. During his six years as OFL president 4 unions undemocratically withheld union dues from the OFL because they disagreed with Ryan's leadership from the first day he was elected. Canada's largest private sector union, Unifor, which had supported him in the past, refused to support his re-election to a fourth term and instead supported a Unifor staff person who worked for Unifor President Jerry Dias.