CORNWALL, Ontario – The Cornwall and District Labour Council took part in a province wide initiative to show solidarity with Tim Hortons employees on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the Cornwall District Labour Council (CDLC) say that Tim Hortons has enacted unfair retribution against their employees for the provincial government’s increase in the minimum wage.
In a letter handed out to Tim Hortons employees, the OFL and CDLC claim that “Tim Hortons has eliminated paid breaks and cut hours; slashed uniform, drink and meal allowances and even reduced access to basic health and dental benefits.”
On Jan. 1, 2018, the Ontario government raised the minimum wage from $11.60 an hour to $14, with promises to raise it again to $15 on Jan. 1, 2019.
Tim Hortons issued a response on Jan. 5 to accusations that some of its franchisees were cutting hours of employees and taking away benefits.
“”Tim Hortons [employees] should never be used to further an agenda or be treated as just an ‘expense.’ This is completely unacceptable,” the company statement reads. “These recent actions by a few restaurant owners … do not reflect the values of our brand.”
In the pamphlets distributed to local Cornwall employees by Louise Lanctot and Elaine MacDonald of the CDLC there is information worker’s rights to unionize, their right for pay for some on-call employees, right to 10 days of emergency leave and more.
Lanctot said she felt that a real solution for minimum wage employees at Tim Hortons was to unionize.
“The solution to a lot of their problems is to become unionized,” she said.
Lanctot and MacDonald were going to visit multiple Tim Hortons in Cornwall and deliver their Valentine’s themed flyers on Tuesday.
