YOUNGER F&B WORKERS ARE NOT ‘SCAPEGOATS’

This quote comes from an article that appeared recently in @globeandmail by @lexxgill that featured Tiago de Souza Jensen — ‘the newly unemployed general manager and sommelier’ of Vancouver’s @burdockandco.

The 25-year-old bristled last week when BC Premier John Horgan called out young people in BC, implying that their socializing and partying was adding to the province’s pandemic woes while simultaneously introducing new restrictions that threaten to put thousands of those same people in the food and beverage industry out of work.

“We’re not your scapegoats,” de Souza Jensen said. He then launched a letter-writing campaign to encourage other hospitality workers to invoice their NDP MLAs for the ‘mountain’ of work they put in last week to reschedule reservations, hastily prepare takeout systems and shut down dining rooms for the three-week closure which is slated to end April 19.

In the same article, Jeff Guignard, executive director at Alliance of Beverage Licensees (ABLE BC) allows that there are some who have not been following the rules, but “…there are thousands more who are working their butts off every day to adhere to the most stringent practices and trying to do the right thing.

“When they hear this type of blame and finger-wagging, there’s bound to be a backlash. The stern-dad dress-down isn’t going to work.”

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