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For many restaurant workers, health benefits are rare. Amid an 'existential' labour shortage, that's changing
Line cook Maddy Vine has worked in a variety of different restaurants: French, Mediterranean, Italian.
What most had in common, the 24-year-old said, was a lack of health benefits, which often left her skipping the dentist and avoiding filling prescriptions.
In a physically demanding job — Vine says she developed carpal tunnel syndrome at age 19 — she says that doesn't seem fair.
"For an industry that's all about taking care of other people, it doesn't make sense to not take care of your employees," said Vine.
Her current employer, D.O.P. — an Italian restaurant in Calgary — is among those bucking the trend.
This summer, owner Antonio Migliarese started offering health and dental benefits to staff after a three-month probation. Migliarese, a former server, says the move was in part because he felt it was the right thing to do — and in part a way of attracting and retaining good people.
"I think it makes it very appealing to work in a place that cares enough to provide health care," said Migliarese, who owns another restaurant, Pizza Face, where the policy also applies.
Migliarese isn't alone. Amid an unprecedented labour shortage, a small but growing number of restaurant owners are expanding health and dental benefits to workers — an indicator of the efforts businesses are making to attract good employees and convince them to stick around.
Even before the pandemic, Restaurants Canada says the industry was short about 60,000 people. These days that number is closer to 170,000, according to Mark von Schellwitz, the association's vice-president for Western Canada.
While the association doesn't track how common benefits are in the industry, von Schellwitz said he's heard anecdotally that a number of restaurants are offering them for the first time. Read the full story here.
Good bones
(Edgar Su/Reuters)
Shen the T. Rex, a 1.4-tonne Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that is being offered for auction by Christie's, is assembled for display at the Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall in Singapore on Thursday.
In brief
Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said last winter's convoy protests "badly exposed" issues with policing and national security in Canada, according to evidence tabled with the Emergencies Act inquiry ahead of his testimony today. Sloly, who resigned on Feb. 15, also told the Public Order Emergency Commission he does not believe a different approach by the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) would have prevented the demonstrations from gridlocking the capital last winter. Sloly has sat for four interviews with the commission's lawyers since late August; his most recent interview was on Oct. 5. A summary of what he said in those interviews was tabled as evidence at the inquiry earlier this week. "Sloly does not believe that [the Ottawa Police Service] could have done anything materially differently on a big-picture level given the unprecedented national security crisis that the OPS was faced with," says the summary of Sloly's witness interview. Read more on this story here.
Their packaging promises big healthy benefits — high fibre, high protein, real fruit and more — but a CBC Marketplace investigation reveals what's really inside five popular foods whose labels may make them seem healthier than they are. "A 'health halo' is basically the perception that a food is better than it says it is, with very little evidence to back that up," said Toronto registered dietitian Stefania Palmeri. "When I see products like this it is frustrating as a dietitian because I can see how consumers fall prey to that." While most of the labels meet government labelling requirements, Palmeri and childhood obesity expert and endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig agree the five products don't deliver on packaging promises. They question if Canada's labelling rules do enough to protect consumers against potentially misleading labels. Read the full story here.
In recent weeks, a brazen yet non-violent approach to environmental activism has been dividing the public, provoking questions about the "right way" to garner support for climate action. In the leadup to COP27, the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next month, activists in Europe have been using a variety of measures, from chucking mashed potatoes at Claude Monet's painting Les Meules to tossing tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers to gluing themselves to a 500-year-old copy of The Last Supper to smashing chocolate cake on a waxwork figure of King Charles. While the paintings were behind protective glass and unharmed, the tactics sparked debate on social media and elsewhere — not about the climate crisis, but about whether civil disobedience had gone too far. Read more here.
Rafael Joseph faces an expensive dilemma. He normally wouldn't think twice before lacing up one of his eight pairs of Yeezy sneakers — the much-hyped partnership between Adidas and Kanye West, also known as Ye. But after the rapper's recent antisemitic rants on social media and a podcast, Joseph — who is Jewish — is contemplating whether to give his expensive collection the boot. He's one of millions of sneaker collectors and music fans now weighing whether they can separate West's controversial views and actions from his creations. "I have a personal problem with putting on branded clothing where I'm promoting someone who genuinely is causing trouble for my people." But where Joseph has a problem, plenty of others see opportunity in West's fall from grace. After Adidas cut ties with West on Tuesday, ending production and ordering authorized retailers like Foot Locker to remove Yeezy products from stores, the resale market kicked into hyperdrive. Most Adidas Yeezys sold for an original retail price of $200 to $300 US, but could go for hundreds more at resale. Read the full story here.
Elon Musk completed his $44-billion US deal to acquire Twitter on Thursday. Among his first steps after taking over was to fire several top company executives — including its chief executive and chief financial officer — that he had accused of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform. Musk has said he wants to "defeat" spam bots on Twitter, make its content-determining algorithms publicly available, and prevent it from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division, even as he limits censorship. However, as he took over command of the firm, he didn't offer any details about how he plans to do that. In a tweet on Thursday, Musk said he didn't buy Twitter to make more money but "to try to help humanity, whom I love." Read more here.
Now for some good news to start your Friday: When Fiona hit Port Port aux Basques, N.L., in September, Brian (Smokey) Osmond lost a lifetime's worth of Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia, and almost his life. He recovered only two pieces from his collection after the storm. But he's sporting blue and white from head to toe after the hockey club sent about 18 boxes packed with sweaters, hats, coats, blankets and other swag to town Mayor Brian Button to be distributed throughout the community. The shipment also contained two very personalized items from Leafs president and NHL Hall of Famer Brendan Shanahan. "The first thing I hauled out was a jersey with my name on it and a signature on it," said Button. "When I looked at the signature … I said, 'It looks like Brendan Shanahan to me.' There was an envelope there, and when I opened it, it [said] 'From the Desk of Brendan Shanahan.'" Button said Shanahan told him the Maple Leafs are also making a $10,000 donation to the Canadian Red Cross for Fiona relief. Read more here.
Nothing is Foreign: There's a cost-of-living crisis behind the political circus in the U.K.
Almost eight million people in the United Kingdom are struggling to pay their bills right now, according to recent financial surveys.
From heat to food, the cost of living has risen astronomically. Some people are even opting out of utilities to save money.
This is the backdrop to the political turmoil that's been dominating the headlines in recent weeks, with Liz Truss resigning from the prime minister's office after only 45 days of leadership, and Rishi Sunak being chosen as Britain's next leader earlier this week.
This week on Nothing is Foreign, we hear from two U.K. residents about their day-to-day challenges, and what they think about the current political landscape.
Today in history: October 28
1830: Josiah Henson, a U.S. slave whose memoirs eventually became an inspiration for the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, escapes to Upper Canada with his wife and children. He eventually settled near Dresden, Ont., where he became the pastor of a church.
1914: Scientist Jonas Salk, who developed one of the first polio vaccines, is born.
1962: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informs the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1977: Solicitor General Francis Fox tells the House of Commons that the RCMP had entered a Montreal office of the Parti Québécois in 1973, without a warrant, to steal party membership lists.
With files from The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters
