Wendy's Treatment of Foreign Workers Protested

Brandon has North America’s highest per capita concentration of temporary foreign workers.

On Saturday October 24, the Manitoba Federation of Labour supported an information picket and demonstration at the Wendy’s restaurant in Brandon. The public demonstration was to bring attention to the recent incidents of employer abuse involving four people brought to Brandon from Regina in contravention of the terms of the federal temporary foreign worker program.

These workers were originally brought to Regina to work at another of the owners Wendy’s franchise outlets before being sent to work at the Brandon restaurant. Once there, the workers said they were threatened constantly with being sent home, promises of airfare and health costs reimbursement were not honoured and most of the wages earned by these workers went to paying the extremely high rent that the employer charged for the house rented to the workers.

After worker Alan Acar was fired by Wendy’s for missing work because he went to a walk-in clinic for a work inflicted injury, the group decided that they had enough and reached out to the broader Brandon labour movement for help. Brandon has North America’s highest per capita concentration of temporary foreign workers yet it has no foreign worker office, Workers Compensation Board office or social infrastructure to help these often marginalized and vulnerable people