Demanding Tim Hortons not punish its workers for an increase in the minimum wage, roughly two dozen Londoners rallied outside of a downtown franchise Wednesday afternoon.
The rally outside of the Richmond St. and Dundas St. Tim Hortons was organized by local labour groups. It was part of a "day of action" in support of the coffee giant's employees across the province after several franchise owners said they would be rolling back workers' benefits and paid breaks due to the bump in the minimum wage.
"We know that workers are afraid to stand up to employers and that is why we are here," said Patti Dalton, president of the London and District Labour Council. "We have many unions represented here, many different community activists and we want these workers to know we are standing up for them. We are going to keep mobilizing across the province and pressuring Tim Hortons corporate to make sure their workers aren't treated unfairly."
There has been no indication that the owners of the Dundas and Richmond Tim Hortons have rolled back any worker benefits to compensate for the increase in the minimum wage.
Minimum wage went up to $14/hr on January 1. Since then many companies have announced measures to combat the higher labour costs. But Tim Hortons has drawn the harshest criticism after the Cobourg restaurants owned by the children of the chain's founders announced they would clawback employee benefits and eliminate paid breaks.
"Tim Hortons corporate in 2016 made $3-billion in profit and their CEO Daniel Schwartz made over $6-million in that same year, so shame on Tim Hortons for treating these employees in this way," said Dalton. "We want them to make sure that the workers have access to the same benefits, the same paid breaks, and that they are not getting punished for getting that raise to the minimum wage."
Terry Card, who is president of the Elementary Teachers Federation Occasional Teachers Local in Thames Valley was among those protesting at the Tim Hortons.
"For such a large corporation that promotes Canadian values this is not the way to handle it and I think whoever is making these decisions for their company needs to rethink it," said Card. "Everybody deserves a fair wage."
Similar rallies at Tim Horton locations were also held in Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, and Cobourg.
