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"Labour challenges" to blame for cut back hours at Wendy's

The same manager who warned about cut back hours at Tim Hortons, has already slimmed down service  at the Wendy’s he owns.

Management posted signs this week, informing customers of the reduced hours of 11 a.m.-10 p.m.,  from its regular hours of 10 a.m. until midnight.  The sign says “due to labour challenges we will be adjusting our hours of operation at this time.” Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan says it’s no surprise some restaurants are feeling the sting of reforms to the temporary foreign worker program.

“That’s the fault of the federal government, they opened the floodgates about seven or eight years ago. So businesses like the ones that we’re talking about today, built their whole business model around this easy access to exploitable workers,” he says.

Local Operator Wayne Bigelow recently penned a letter to MLA Don Scott, pleading with the government to push for changes to the program. He wrote about reduced hours at Tim Hortons, closed drive thrus and long line ups. The three locations in the city lost 31 workers since the federal government introduced reforms to the program on June 20, 2014. It says 75 out of about 200 staff members are TFWs. However, the AFL notes that Bigelow fails to mention just how much workers are paid.

“A lot of those temporary foreign workers working at Tim Hortons and Wendy’s, they’re making 12 bucks an hour in Fort McMurray. That’s a poverty wage. And so, these guys are just not going to get my sympathy and they can’t say they’ve done everything to attract Canadians when they offer $12 an hour,” says McGowan.

Bigelow has yet to comment on the letter sent to Scott and operations at the restaurants he owns. Tim Hortons communications sent the following emailed statement in response to an interview request:

“Thank you for reaching out however we politely decline the opportunity. At this time there is no additional information to share beyond what was communicated by Mr. Bigelow in his personal letter to Mr. Don Scott.”

The federal government lifted a moratorium on using TFWs in the fast food industry in June. At the same time it announced reforms that included a cap on the number of foreign worker hires, a tougher screening process, checking on workplaces that use a high number of TFWs, and fines of up to $100,000 for businesses who abuse the program.