Current Events > Tim Hortons channels Canadian Politeness by screwing over its workface

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https://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/cobourg-tim-hortons-benefit-cut?utm_term=.rq5pQeKq2#.hyWPABExw

Employees at a Canada-based Tim Hortons location felt blindsided after being told their benefits were getting cut by at least half, with the owners blaming a minimum wage increase for the sudden changes.
In a letter from the owners of the franchise located in Cobourg, Ontario, workers found out last month they were losing paid breaks, health benefits, and other previous guarantees starting on Jan. 1.

The letter blamed the changes on the increase in Ontario's minimum hourly wage from $11.60 to $14 on Jan. 2, and which is set to rise by another dollar in 2019. The owners also blamed "the lack of assistance and financial help from our Head Office and from the Government."

According to the letter, employees with five years or more of service will now be responsible for 50% of their previously guaranteed health and dental benefits. Employees with under five years must pay 75% out of pocket.
The married owners are Ron Joyce Jr. and Jeri Horton-Joyce, son and daughter of Tim Hortons company co-founders Ron Joyce and Tim Horton.

In a statement, the Tim Hortons corporate office said that "all employment matters, including all policies for benefits and wages," are set by individual franchise owners.

BuzzFeed Canada reached out to the owners for comment.

The employees felt "shock and panic" after receiving the notice, according to James Pickersgill, who knows three people who are affected.
"Their respect for the owners where they worked bottomed out," he told BuzzFeed Canada, adding that employees felt pressure to sign the document without seeking any outside advice or input.

According to Pickersgill, the situation was compounded by the fact that the owners sent the letter while they were at their second home in Florida.

"I haven't heard anybody who works there express any sympathy with the owners," he said.

Pickersgill, who does not work at Tim Hortons, shared a photo of the letter on his Facebook account because the affected workers feared retribution if they did it themselves, he said.

It quickly racked up hundreds of shares, and many have reacted with anger at the owners' decision to shift the cost of the wage hike to their employees.

Some people are already calling for a boycott of the whole international food chain.
"I may be time to boycott @TimHortons as they seem to want to harm innocent low wage employees."
Others are blaming the company for not taking more responsibility for the actions of individual franchises.
According to CBC News, some employees' compensation will actually be lower now than before the rise in the minimum wage.

One angry employee told the public broadcaster that they would lose $51 per paycheque as a result of the changes, once unpaid breaks and the cost of previously covered benefits are factored in.

At the end of the day a company has to turn profits and employees are meant to bring in profit. But is it right for Tim Hortons to cut benefits in this reactionary fashion?
Are you going to boycott Tim Hortons?
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The married owners are brother and sister? Or did I misread that...?

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I don't think they exist in Hawaii.

Buzz Killjoy posted...

The married owners are brother and sister? Or did I misread that...?

Misread.
The cofounders got their child engaged together.

Jorep posted...

the owners sent the letter while they were at their second home in Florida.

this is all you really need to know

At the end of the day a company has to turn profits and employees are meant to bring in profit.

capital can't exist without labour, but labour would thrive without capital. the owners need to realize this, and recognize themselves for the parasites that they are

is it right for Tim Hortons to cut benefits in this reactionary fashion?

absolutely not

Are you going to boycott Tim Hortons?

I don't eat there much anyway. I'm not sacrificing anything by not going
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Workface
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I figure I'll join the boycott at least in spirit.

I don't eat fast food anyway and I think fast food places need to go so it aligns well enough with my ideals XD
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I dont go to Tim Hortons anyway. Now Ive got further reason to not go.
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On the one hand, I feel like this is justified. On the other, Tim Hortons from what I remember, is a pretty big franchise, and depending on where they're located, could weather the pay increase without having to slash benefits.
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Unionize
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Liberal politics at work here. You can't just magically raise the minimum wage and expect everything to go smoothly. They got their $14 an hour and must now pay the price.
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Companies do this to make liberal exonomic policies unpopular. Papa John's did the same thing and that fucker lives in a huuuuge mansion just like how these guys have a second home in another country. Of course right wing rubes go along with it.
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If they wanted to cut "costs" to make it come out about even on their end all together, I would understand. The fact that everyone there now makes less money than before is really just a kick to the balls.
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Southernfatman posted...

Companies do this to make liberal exonomic policies unpopular. Papa John's did the same thing and that fucker lives in a huuuuge mansion. Of course right wing rubes go along with it.

"This person lives in a mansion therefore he can afford to give away all of his millions to crybaby liberals that want an extra dollar an hour." - Liberal logic

The point of working at fast food places is to have enough money to put food on your table. If your career is to work at fast food you don't deserve to make more than $10 an hour. Quit being lazy and go back to school and get a degree.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Liberal politics at work here. You can't just magically raise the minimum wage and expect everything to go smoothly. They got their $14 an hour and must now pay the price.

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It's a purely political move, they get to have less benefits to pay and they're making it look like rising minimum wage is the cause, when in fact it's just an excuse.
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Owners: stop asking for a living wage, that money's ours!! And what the fuck does "inflation" mean?!

If a business can't pay its staff properly, it deserves to go bankrupt.
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2 previous girlfriends have worked at Tim Hortons as did my cousin.

It's a piss poor place to work by all accounts, and their benefits were already shit.

Not surprising, they've gone downhill food wise as well, bread is shit tier now.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Southernfatman posted...

Companies do this to make liberal exonomic policies unpopular. Papa John's did the same thing and that fucker lives in a huuuuge mansion. Of course right wing rubes go along with it.

"This person lives in a mansion therefore he can afford to give away all of his millions to crybaby liberals that want an extra dollar an hour." - Liberal logic

The point of working at fast food places is to have enough money to put food on your table. If your career is to work at fast food you don't deserve to make more than $10 an hour. Quit being lazy and go back to school and get a degree.

*Jim Halpert stares at the camera*
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Owners: stop asking for a living wage, that money's ours!! And what the fuck does "inflation" mean?!

If a business can't pay its staff properly, it deserves to go bankrupt.

What is meant by "paid properly"? And $10 an hour is a living wage. Just because you can't drop a grand on a new phone whenever you want doesn't mean it's not livable.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Owners: stop asking for a living wage, that money's ours!! And what the fuck does "inflation" mean?!

If a business can't pay its staff properly, it deserves to go bankrupt.

What is meant by "paid properly"? And $10 an hour is a living wage. Just because you can't drop a grand on a new phone whenever you want doesn't mean it's not livable.

$10 at full time hours is $400 a week. that's 1600 a month. in most cities, that barely covers rent and food. in some cities, it doesn't even cover rent

and that's not even considering the difficulty in getting full time hours in the first place
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

And $10 an hour is a living wage.

If the previous minimum wage of $11 wasn't a living wage in Ontario, I don't know why you'd think $10 is somehow better.

Anyway, businesses have been eager to get rid of the Ontario Liberals for ages. Wouldn't shock me if this was purely political rather than any actual financial justification for a cut in benefits that big.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Owners: stop asking for a living wage, that money's ours!! And what the fuck does "inflation" mean?!

If a business can't pay its staff properly, it deserves to go bankrupt.

What is meant by "paid properly"? And $10 an hour is a living wage. Just because you can't drop a grand on a new phone whenever you want doesn't mean it's not livable.

You're clearly another "what's inflation" person... You guys are literally the most annoying because of your stupidity and stubbornness.

Wage increases have happened for decades, but they fail to keep pace with inflation (it causes a decrease in money's value). $10 today isn't $10 in 1980s money. Not to mention that cost of living varies wildly depending where you live. If you can't grasp that, you're not worth any more of my time.

FYI: I don't even have to work so this isn't a personal issue for me. I'm just not a dumbass.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Owners: stop asking for a living wage, that money's ours!! And what the fuck does "inflation" mean?!

If a business can't pay its staff properly, it deserves to go bankrupt.

What is meant by "paid properly"? And $10 an hour is a living wage. Just because you can't drop a grand on a new phone whenever you want doesn't mean it's not livable.

You're missing the point. Workers are what keep companies running. Without workers there is no money for the company.

So workers should be paid fairly for the work they do. If you're a company making millions and millions of dollars a year, you can afford to pay your workers fairly even if you lose some money.

It's like "we're making 500 million a year, but we can't raise our employees pay because we might only make 480 million then!"
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Stop feeding Hoth. Goddamn.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

Wage increases have happened for decades, but they fail to keep pace with inflation (it causes a decrease in money's value).

Ontario has actually been increasing it a bit every year for a while.


There was a point you can see where they froze it at $10.25 because businesses insisted, but prices of goods still kept climbing so they brought it up to $11. Before every wage hike, businesses fearmonger about how much things will go up in cost, but the increase isn't really much more than when it was frozen for four years.

Also 2014 was an election year so that factored into the $11 minimum wage.
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Southernfatman posted...

Stop feeding Hoth. Goddamn.

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Southernfatman posted...

Stop feeding Hoth. Goddamn.

I honestly don't know why I don't have him muted at this point
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Spooking posted...

NINExATExSEVEN posted...

You're missing the point. Workers are what keep companies running. Without workers there is no money for the company.

Workers are going to get replaced with robots (automation) because of this.

and it's important that the global revolution happens before full automation so that the resultant wealth is distributed among everyone, rather than concentrated in the hands of 12 people

if it doesn't happen before, then full automation will probably be what triggers it
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electricbugs2 posted...

2 previous girlfriends have worked at Tim Hortons as did my cousin.

It's a piss poor place to work by all accounts, and their benefits were already shit.

Not surprising, they've gone downhill food wise as well, bread is shit tier now.

Seriously, Tim Hortons keeps going down the shitter. It's now owned by some Brazilian-based company that doesn't even care about it because at this point it's the Canadian equivalent of a Nintendo console printing money for Nintendo.

Iirc a bunch of Franchisees have actually launched a class-action lawsuit against the parent company because their shitty policies are costing the Franchisees money because it's ruining the name.
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Spooking posted...

NINExATExSEVEN posted...

You're missing the point. Workers are what keep companies running. Without workers there is no money for the company.

Workers are going to get replaced with robots (automation) because of this.

That's just fear mongering. If it was really that much more profitable and easy to just replace workers with robots, companies would've already done that.

But they don't because it's not easy.
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SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Liberal politics at work here. You can't just magically raise the minimum wage and expect everything to go smoothly. They got their $14 an hour and must now pay the price.

Aside from the "herp derp duh libruls" shit.... THIS.
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NINExATExSEVEN posted...

Spooking posted...

NINExATExSEVEN posted...

You're missing the point. Workers are what keep companies running. Without workers there is no money for the company.

Workers are going to get replaced with robots (automation) because of this.

That's just fear mongering. If it was really that much more profitable and easy to just replace workers with robots, companies would've already done that.

But they don't because it's not easy.

Gets easier every year. And the shift has begun already. You can already order fast food at many places without any human interaction beyond being passed a bag and self checkouts...etc...
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SGT_Conti posted...

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Wage increases have happened for decades, but they fail to keep pace with inflation (it causes a decrease in money's value).

Ontario has actually been increasing it a bit every year for a while.


There was a point you can see where they froze it at $10.25 because businesses insisted, but prices of goods still kept climbing so they brought it up to $11. Before every wage hike, businesses fearmonger about how much things will go up in cost, but the increase isn't really much more than when it was frozen for four years.

Also 2014 was an election year so that factored into the $11 minimum wage.

Problem is even if minimum wage goes up its not like wages as a whole are. All it really does is diminish the buying power for people like me making high teens or low 20s who already have a hard as fuck time to save anything or get ahead.

And cost people hours at work or jobs.
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CanuckCowboy posted...

Problem is even if minimum wage goes up its not like wages as a whole are. All it really does is diminish the buying power for people like me making high teens or low 20s who already have a hard as fuck time to save anything or get ahead.

And cost people hours at work or jobs.

this is the exact narrative being talked about here:

Southernfatman posted...

Companies do this to make liberal exonomic policies unpopular. Papa John's did the same thing and that fucker lives in a huuuuge mansion just like how these guys have a second home in another country. Of course right wing rubes go along with it.

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CanuckCowboy posted...

Problem is even if minimum wage goes up its not like wages as a whole are. All it really does is diminish the buying power for people like me making high teens or low 20s who already have a hard as fuck time to save anything or get ahead.

And cost people hours at work or jobs.

I think the idea is that they want companies to retain more expensive talent by increasing their wages in turn. People always talk about "Why would I work as an IT technician if I can just flip burgers?" Basically raise the floor and the ceiling, not just the floor.

I'm no economist though so I can't really judge what's better.
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