Rôtisserie Laurier in Mtl - Gordon Ramsay sacks all workers

[lagatta]

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and other investors taking over the long-standing Rôtisserie Laurier BBQ restaurant in Outremont are sacking all the current staff, including servers and cooks who have been at the establishment for decades. Must get young and trendy after all, eh?

Such fake closings and mass firings of staff contravene Québec Labour Standards, but it is hard to ensure enforcement in cases where the workers are not union members.

In any case it is a disgusting thing to do.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/vivre/cuisine/en-vrac/201103/02/01-4375224-rotisserie-laurier-lensemble-du-personnel-licencie.php

http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/Gordon+Ramsay+Laurier+shut+overhaul/4371983/story.html

[Boom Boom]

Ramsay has a far different world view than anyone on this board - he has the world's most exacting standards for food cooking and presentation and only caters to the well-to-do. I think he's an asshole, and I'd love to see an organized boycott of the restaurant when it re-opens. I've watched his shows on The Food Network and my opinion that he's an asshole has only grown. That said, he's probably the world's richest chef and he clearly doesn't give a shit whatever anyone on this board thinks of him. I think he sacked the staff because they've been there so long and are probably set in their ways - with Gordon Ramsay, everything is fresh or he doesn't invest. I'd love to see all of his restaurants fail because of organised boycotts and protests over his managerial decisions. The city should be watching him like a hawk to see if he breaks any zoning regulations or even human rights. Ramsay is one of the world's biggest jerks,clearly, but he seems to love being hated.

[Antonia]

Laurier BBQ was an institution in Montreal. I first went when I was about 10, after a movie at the Rialto theatre. Maybe it was Old Yeller.

The sale put people on edge. But this is war.  He has now officially fucked with it. 

My prediction is, he will get a flurry of new business at the beginning but he will never understand the Montreal market.

[lagatta]

Waldman's Fish was another Mtl institution, just off the Main in the southwestern Plateau. Most of the fishmongers were experienced Portuguese men of a certain age, and by the 1970s Portuguese people formed the majority of the customers. Waldman was also sold, and the new management sacked or locked-out the fishmen. The Portuguese community stayed away in droves, and while Waldman's continues to limp along, the business has never recovered.

Edited to add: the new Waldman's management added insult to injury by cheating the staff out of their pensions, to which the workers had contributed for decades in most cases. The new owner did a fake closing, selling the business to his wife or some other relative, and re-opening as a numbered company. There is a special place in hell for such types.

They were interviewing a woman whose elderly dad still works as a cook at Laurier BBQ. He can't really afford to retire and doesn't want to, but will have no choice. This is in particular an attack on older workers. A lot of these trendified places only hire pretty young girls and boys, not all of them skilled (though of course there are good young waitstaffers too). I just hate that stuff.

Actually, the food and décor have become a bit stale and new management with new ideas were welcomed by many, but that is no reason to dispose of workers like chipped porcelain.

[Croghan27]

the new Waldman's management added insult to injury by cheating the staff out of their pensions, to which the workers had contributed for decades in most cases. The new owner did a fake closing, selling the business to his wife or some other relative, and re-opening as a numbered company. There is a special place in hell for such types.

Will the Dept of Labour put up with this foolishness?

[lagatta]

This was back in the 1990s. It definitely contravened Québec labour law and labour standards   - dunno how the management got away with it.