Minimum Wages, Maximum Risk
There’s a group of front line workers that are exposing themselves to violence, drug use, overdoses and mental mayhem every day in our cities across Canada. They don’t carry firearms, they aren’t medical professionals and they often make less then $15 an hour. Our minimum wage, front facing service personnel have filled the void where public policy and public services continue to fail against the ever growing tide of complete social dysfunction.
I have been speaking to front facing retail workers recently in Prince Albert. In some cases it’s simply casual conversation and in others we’ve had in depth conversations. Regardless if the incident is high profile or low profile, what has become painfully obvious to me is that the policing and healthcare failures of criminal & Mental behavior has had the largest impact on retail workers.
(Please note that I have anonymized several of the people’s details to protect them from retaliation from their employers.)
Horror Stories
I was speaking speaking with a Tim Hortons worker, the staff have special gloves and protocols to handle the garbage bags in the public areas but this only came after several staff members were poked by used needles discarded into the garbage bins. Many of these needles are handed out for free from the Saskatchewan Health Authority. They’ve had trouble with homeless people sleeping, camping out and consuming drugs in the washrooms. They would call the police and after so many calls the Police told them to hire security. Instead of hiring security the staff would have to arm themselves with brooms and breach the washrooms to chase people away. In some circumstances they’ve had drug addicts, criminals and street people attack them in the store and come over the counter at them. It is not uncommon to see homeless people camped out in the drive through or passed out just outside. For awhile the Tim Hortons had to close their in person dining service for safety reasons. On some occasions windows have been shattered.
Most of the workers at the Tim Hortons are new comers to Canada trying to earn their Permanent residency and Citizenship. So they come to Canada hoping for a better life and are relegated to working minimum wage jobs where they are exposed to violent and sometimes life threatening situations. The people I have spoken too on this issue have done so under the veil of anonymity as they are worried that complaining will result in a rejection of their work visa and deportation.
Last year there was a axe attack at the Tim Hortons in Cornerstone. There was a TikTok video of the police responding but I have been unable to locate it and believe it has since been deleted. The link to the story is here. What wasn’t told in the story is that the person who brought the axe and made the threats returned to the Tim Hortons a few hours later and threatened the staff again for phoning the police.
These are not isolated incidents, fast food restaurants across Canada no longer have to fear the corporate Karen complainer, these restaurants have become defacto homeless hangouts and drug dens. Fast food staff have become a key part of the on-going battle for the habitus of Canada. They are assaulted, get poked by dirty needles, face verbal threats, witness drug usage and it’s effects, are expected to administer narcan, must become good witnesses for police calls, must follow HR policies that put them at risk and must face head on the failed social policies in silence lest they be fired or threatened with deportation. That’s a lot of pressure for $12 an hour.
Gas station workers have also been the target of violent attacks. I spoke to a worker at the COOP in downtown Cornerstone area who told me that workers and customers pumping gas are regularly threatened by people on the street. Some incidents have resulted in violence where people have been injured. They also have issues with people hanging around the store to steal or beg for money. People working there do not feel safe and feel that they have to step into criminal situations because calling the police does not always result in an Officer showing up right away. I found some news articles and a video by a reporter in Prince Albert.
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The Walmart in Prince Albert is a known hotbed of criminal activity and social degeneracy. I spoke extensively with someone who works there who gave me the shocking details. I was told that retail theft is a huge problem. We’re not talking about situations of people stealing food because they’re so hungry. These are people loading up carts full of electronics, toys and basically anything they can and rushing the emergency exits and running away as fast as they can. It’s easy to say that Walmart is a predatory company that deserves this but the cost of theft will always be downloaded back onto the customer and eventually the building will simply close and move on elsewhere. There will be no mom and pop shops to fill the void like many progressives think there will be. In fact if you go to Prince Albert’s downtown almost all the mom and pop shops have closed, not because of gouging Walmart shutting them down but because they’ve been robbed so many times and people are not safe being down town.
The employee has told me that it has become quite coordinated. Someone will create a distraction for security while the thieves slip out of the store. Security is consistently turning people away from the store or having to chase them out because they are well known thieves. The security staff have been assaulted. Security Guards are low wage staff as well, many barely make above minimum wage and are expected to do far more then observing and reporting. In many cases Security personnel have to take on a far more Police centered role with none of the training or legal protections that Police Officers enjoy.
This employee also told me that this Walmart is one of the few that employs full time uniformed security guards as well as full time Loss Prevention staff. They told me that officially the store closes at 10pm and not 11pm because their is reduced business, however the truth is that it becomes so much more dangerous for staff that late at night and the thefts in the store skyrocket after 10pm. They’ve have taken to fortifying the store because their are consistently new ways that people try to break in. Someone had broken in through the online order doors and stole a bunch of electronics before leaving through the same doors. They add more bolts and security gates but it is a consistent battle.
Apparently there have been several fires started in the back by receiving so they cannot leave pallets out anymore to stop fires from spreading. The garbage compactor is being constantly broken into and garbage strewn everywhere from the rummaging. The cargo containers have been looted several times and at one point there were drug addicts living in one of them. Addicts actively use substances and leave dirty used needles and drug accessories for the staff to find and pick up.
Apparently customers aren’t even safe, the parking lot is an open ground for harassment and security had to be hired to patrol the parking lot for safety. A female landscaper working on the grass near the Walmart was beaten by a homeless person who then ran away and he tried to do it again to some of the Walmart workers a few days later but ended up beating up another homeless woman while ranting about his rights. The Security Guards and some Walmart staff came to the homeless woman’s rescue and waited ages for Police to show up to get him trespassed from the property.
The worker I spoke to told me that they feel bad for the immigrants that come here for school because they are told a tale that they can come to Canada for a better life and end up coming here to work shitty minimum wage jobs and live in absolute fear because the local gangs are incredibly racist against them. Apparently one of the Managers was attacked with a machete and lives in Saskatoon now. Another manager left overnight because he moved into an area of town he didn’t know was a bad area and something happened to him at his place so he fled to another city.
I asked the employee why they they wanted anonymity and they told me that they risked getting fired for telling the truth but it’s so bad now that they feel compelled to speak up. They are tired of society being terrorized by criminals. Tired of the Government ignoring drug abuse and doing policies that make things worse. Tired of mental illness in the streets being normalized. They’re tired of talking with employees struggling to pay bills. Tired that even customers are saying Walmart is too expensive now. They sent me several photos of needles that they cleaned up for the article.
In 2019 an infamous video went viral of a naked man, high on substances running around Superstore in Prince Albert. The man was eventually sentenced to time served, the judge determining that the “public shaming” the man received was punishment enough. The video and initial story can be found here. What I found more interesting was that in a separate article one of the stores managers was fired for confronting the naked man and for confronting shoplifters. Travis Long was fired after two times attempting to deal with dangerous customers, one of them was the naked man. In another incident he confronted a shoplifter who had fled into an office in the back of the store and she pulled a knife and threatened him.
What I don’t like about this is that it’s easy to have a no confrontation policy but when situations are chaotic and out of control, employees expect someone to try to fix it, try to return the work place back to normalcy. So naturally they look to their management team to assist them. If there is no one willing to confront wrongdoers and the only remedy is to call the police and wait twenty minutes for someone to show up and take a statement because the criminal is already gone, that is extremely demoralizing for people who are working. It signifies a departure from the social contract and ceding ground to criminal behavior. It’s incredibly corporate and reeks of “corporatespeak”. It also signifies to criminals that crime is permitted here, so next time it might be something more bold and if the staff’s face. We have to remember these people aren’t stealing food just to survive, this isn’t stealing out of guilt. This is a middle finger to the worker, to the system, to order and justice. It’s saying, I can and will do this and your rules do not effect or scare me. It has an effect on the psychosocial consciousness of the public. Here’s the article if you want to read it.
Maximum Risk
These are a few horror stories but they are not exhaustive. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories from service workers, security guards and retail outlet employees. Many of them hesitant to open up about it, a nervous glance over the shoulder before telling the truth of what is really going on. This is because the employee is supposed to uphold the veneer of civility of our society but the dam is cracking. Many are tired of being treated like crap, not even necessarily by their employer but by customers and criminals. The myth of the idea of Canada previously sold to immigrants is also receding quickly. Canada is losing it’s sheen to those who wanted to join us and we find ourselves losing support locally in the United States and Internationally at a fairly rapid rate.
Until we get serious about these social issues that are plaguing us, front facing service workers will continue to bear the brunt of social maleficence in our society. These people suffer will suffer trauma for minimum wage and no benefits, asked to do the work of emergency services. Unfortunately for most progressives, this is completely acceptable because they personally don’t have to deal with it. They work their Corporate/Government jobs and live in nice suburbs that don’t have to face these issues. They shop in expensive stores that normal people don’t shop at and they lecture us from their bully pulpits. It’s coming for them though.
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