‘Hold the sugar, hold the cream, Tim Hortons don’t be mean,’ protesters chant
TORONTO — Protesters who rallied outside Tim Hortons locations across Ontario on Wednesday roasted some franchisees for slashing workers’ benefits and breaks in an effort to compensate for the province’s minimum wage hike, but many said their gripes would not derail their daily coffee runs.
Those who gathered said they were worried staff would be negatively impacted if they boycotted to spite the small handful of franchisees — not necessarily the 16 locations that were targeted — who demanded workers cover a larger share of their dental and health-care benefits and take unpaid breaks to offset the 20 per cent raise to $14 an hour.
“I haven’t decided to boycott because these wages go to the workers and to putting people like me through university because minimum-wage jobs are the ones largely available to students,” said Joshua Bowman, a University of Toronto student who protested at the Tim Hortons location down the street from his university.
Bowman gripped a sign reading “Shame on Timmies for not sharing” and chanted “Hold the sugar, hold the cream, Tim Hortons don’t be mean” with at least three dozen other activists as a steady stream of customers filtered inside. Similar scenes played out in other Ontario cities including Ottawa, London, Guelph and Peterborough.